


i have the power of god, anime and you on my side

by mikanes



Category: NCT (Band)
Genre: Alternate Universe, Alternate Universe - College/University, Angst, Crack, Everyone Is Gay, Group chat, Homophobia, M/M, Markhyuck is side, Memes, My First Fanfic, No Smut, Weebs, Yuwin is main, all other ships are just mentioned, and tentacle porn, but jungwoo is lowkey a furry, chat fic, chenle and sicheng are brothers, jaehyun yuta lucas johnny are athletes, like furry genocide is suggested, nerd! sicheng, sex is mentioned and stuff, sicheng hates yuta irl, sicheng loves haikyuu, so i guess coffeeshop au, soccer player! yuta, sry if ur a furry bc this is has anti-furry themes, taeil has a crush on sicheng, taeil works at a coffee shop, vine references, yuta is into shonen, yuta is popular
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-26
Updated: 2019-03-31
Packaged: 2019-05-29 04:32:01
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 19
Words: 34,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15065210
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/mikanes/pseuds/mikanes
Summary: Yuta, a popular soccer player and closeted otaku, and Sicheng, a deceptively quiet exchange student are both added to a group chat for weebs by their mutual friend Mark. Mark has a crush on the cute boy in his music class, Donghyuck, and unknowingly added Hyuck to the same groupchat. Everyone thinks the group of popular boys is straight, but Johnny and Ten are practially married, Jaehyun has been pining over Taeyong for years, and Lucas... well Lucas is a bit of a mystery.Gradually, Yuta and Sicheng grow closer, online and offline.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> yo this is my first fic ever, so please give me feedback in the comments! I've prewritten a couple chapters so i'll try to update fairly quick. also btw ive graduated out of my weeb phase so i had to ask my friends for some of the anime things so sry if theyre incorrect.

March 14th

 

It was a delightful spring day. Gentle breeze passing through the campus, in turn blowing cherry blossom petals all over. 

_ Almost like a scene from an anime,  _ Sicheng thought.

He snapped out of his daydream real quick when he tripped over a bench. 

_ Whatever. Probably karma for embarrassing Chenle in front of Jisung the other day. _

He continued strolling but stopped short when he saw the light of God, or should he say the lit up sign that read “Starfucks Coffee”. Sicheng hadn’t gotten his fix yet today. He would normally make his own coffee, but today he had an 11 am lecture instead of his usual 8 am. He decided to treat himself to an overpriced coffee today, so he pushed his way into the busy shop and was immediately greeted by the blushing smile of the barista. 

_ Fuck, he’s working today. _

Most of the people were waiting to receive their drinks, not order, so he uneasily stepped up to the counter. 

“How are you today Sicheng?~”

“Oh hey Taeil,” Sicheng mumbled, eyes fixed to the menu overhead.

“Ok… so what would you like to order?” Taeil inquired.

“Uh, I’ll take a grande caramel macchiato.”

“Ok! Coming right up!”

Sicheng jammed some cash into Taeil’s hand, before scampering away to the pick-up counter. Taeil had a huge crush on Sicheng, it was common knowledge, but Sicheng always felt creeped out by him so he avoided him at all costs. Unfortunately for Sicheng, Taeil worked at the only coffee shop in the vicinity of his dorm. He tried to only come when he knew Taeil wouldn’t be working, but apparently, he was wrong this time. 

“Caramel Macchiato for, uh, Sicheng!”

He quickly snatched his drink off the counter and rushed out of the shop.  _ It’s already 10:54 I gotta hurry.  _ He glanced down at his cup only to see a little heart written next to his name. His face twisted into a temporary scowl but kept walking to the lecture hall.  _ I really should just tell Taeil that I’m not gonna date him and to fuck off.  _ He kicked the door open with his foot and was greeted by a mostly full auditorium. He scurried up to the second to back row and assumed his position next to Kun, another Chinese exchange student and one of his best friends. He showed Kun his coffee cup and muttered, “Taeil”. Kun rolled his eyes in mutual disgust. He sat down and pulled out a piece of paper to take “notes” on. Neither of them paid attention anyway, they just passed notes in Chinese, to prevent the kids around them to read all the spilled tea and gossiping that they did. One of their favorite topics to “discuss” was whether the group of popular jocks was gay or aggressively straight (there’s not much of a difference, honestly). They had their bets placed, but neither were close enough with any of the jocks to figure out for real. 

Soon enough, the professor announced that class was over. Sicheng honestly didn’t even know what subject that class was, but whatever it was he was getting a good grade in it, miraculously. He said goodbye to Kun and exited into the now blaring mid-day sun. Sicheng went to his next class, Art History, that was conveniently in the building right across the way from him. Once he arrived, he settled into his usual seat in the middle auditorium. He whipped out his phone (which had a Nishinoya phone charm attached to it, because Haikyuu is life) and started scrolling through his twitter. 

_ Just the usual, Hyuck getting in yet ANOTHER fanwar over EXO, and Chenle retweeting dead memes...oh wait what’s this? _

Sicheng’s thumb stopped when he saw that Mark had tweeted one of those dumb things that is like “rt to be in a group chat” which he normally ignored. But this was a group chat for anime and Sicheng quite liked Mark so he decided to retweet, even though he probably wouldn’t be added. He looked up from his noticing that the empty seats around him had filled up, and he should probably get his stuff out. He took out his notebook for “notetaking” and a pencil. The professor called the class to attention and began saying something about, actually, Sicheng wasn’t listening to what the professor was saying. He’s too focused on his “notetaking”, and by notetaking he means sketching Hinata with his legs spread, and Kageyama sucking his dick. He glanced away from his work for a second and caught sight of someone trying to quietly sneak their way into the lecture hall. 

_ Ugh, it’s that purple-haired asshole who’s always late,  _ he thought in disgust. The boy’s mauve locks were plastered to his forehead with sweat, and he was out of breath, probably from running to class. Actually, the boy kinda looked similar to the Hinata in his drawing right now…  _ Ew, I’m grossed out that I even thought that.  _ The boy was one of those popular jocks, but Sicheng didn’t really know any of them. Sicheng wondered why the boy was consistently late and sweaty when he came to class. Mark probably knew who the boy was since he occasionally hung out with that group, but Sicheng didn’t care enough to ask him. He turned his attention back to his notebook, and in no time Sicheng was freed from the prison that was the lecture hall. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> so sichengs a bit of a perv.... any guesses on who the mysterious guy with purple hair is ? ;) also the next chapters will be a bit longer
> 
> twit: @renjeolmii


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for the support on the first chapter! This chapter is also exposition, so it is also a bit shorter.

March 14th 9:00  **Yuta POV**

_ “Arittakedo yume wo kaki atsume Sagashi mono wo sagashi ni yuku no saaa”  _ Upbeat music started playing with soulful vocals.

“Shut the fuck up!” Yuta yelled groggily, but then realized it wasn’t one of his three roommates that were making noise, but the alarm of his own phone going off. 

He sat up, looking at himself in the mirror across from his bed.  _ God my chin looks like shit. I really should stop spending so much money on Chipotle and save up for some fillers.  _ He rolled off his bed, landing with a soft thump.  _ I should just skip practice today. I go every day, I deserve a break,  _ he figured, but then remembered how much of a hardass Coach was about attendance. He lugged his half-asleep body to the bathroom to go wash his face and pull his hair up so it wouldn’t get into his face while playing. His hair had gotten really long, to the point where it covered his eyes if his hair wasn’t pushed to the side or tied back.  _ I need to get it cut, I’m starting to look like a 2008 myspace emo with these long bangs and purple hair.  _ He snapped out of that thought and quickly grabbed a whole tomato from the communal fridge to eat on his way to practice. Yes, he was eating a whole tomato like an apple. What’s the problem? 

Once he arrived at the field, he already saw a couple boys warming up. He was caught off guard when he saw a tall figure with honey blonde hair jogging around in the distance. Yuta started running towards the other boy.

“Hey, Xuxi! Where’ve you been?” Yuta said, greeting him with a no-homo-casual-bro side hug.

“Ah, you know, just got caught up with parties and girls. You know, the usual.” Xuxi responded nonchalantly.

“Oh that’s good, I was starting to wonder where you left to bro,” Yuta said, picking up a random soccer ball that was rolling across the ground. Then he began to practice juggling. Yuta was actually quite relieved that Xuxi was back at practice though, he did too much partying and sleeping around for Yuta, and it worried him. Honestly, even though Yuta was a close friend of Xuxi, he didn’t really know what his deal was. Xuxi was actually quite closed off and private about his life other than his party animal facade, but Yuta didn’t want to make Xuxi uncomfortable by asking. He didn’t even know if Xuxi liked girls or guys though, he has pretty much slept with the whole cheerleading squad, but Xuxi also was really close with this one guy, Jungwoo or something like that. Jungwoo was a quiet artistic type, the exact opposite of Xuxi, but they spent all their time together. A bit suss in Yuta’s opinion. 

A few more people had arrived while Yuta was warming up and Coach called the team together. It was a pretty intense practice as they had Districts next week. Soon enough, Coach dismissed practice and Yuta bounced over to grab some water.

“Oh hey Mark! I guess I didn’t see you come into practice.”

“Yeah I was a little late, you know just caught up in class prez things,” Mark replied sheepishly.

“Oh, I forgot to ask you!” Mark lit up in an epiphany, “I’m making a discord for anime, do you wanna be in it?”

Before Yuta could reply, Mark interrupted reading Yuta’s mind, “There isn’t anyone from our school in it, except for like one guy who doesn’t know you, I know you don’t wanna come out of the weeb closet.”

Yuta chuckled lightly at how well Mark knew him, “Yeah sure, I hope it doesn’t die in 3 days though like most group chats do” he paused and glanced down at his phone, “Shit, it was really nice chatting with you Mark, but I gotta blast see ya around!” Yuta trailed off sprinting and leaving a slightly confused Mark behind. Class starts at 13:00 and it was already 12:58, and it takes him at least 15 minutes to get to the auditorium if he sprinted. He really needs to keep track of time because Professor Kim will definitely be on his ass again for being late. He was already in danger of failing that class, and it was too late to drop it so he really did not want the professor to hate him any more than she already did. He arrived in front of the plain looking building and tried to enter as quietly as possible, he was pretty successful until the goddamn door squeaked and drew all of the class’s attention to him. Yuta instantly froze in his place and then continued to “tip-toe” in, scanning the crowd of students at the same time. He caught sight of that one cute international student, who was currently furiously doodling on a piece of paper. He looked so soft and innocent when focused, he was probably drawing something like a bunny or a landscape or something artsy like that. Yuta himself was not a very good artist at all, but he preferred to appreciate art rather than make it. He didn’t catch that he was staring a little too long and the cute boy’s head snapped up to look at Yuta. Yuta quickly shifted his gaze to Jaehyun, his friend who was a couple seats over, not wanting the boy to catch him staring. Yuta was pretty confident in his charisma and could charm pretty much anyone he talked to, but he knew absolutely nothing about the exchange student and he was pretty sure that he barely spoke Korean. Yuta slumped down in his seat in the first row staring blankly ahead, empathizing with the other boy. He remembered when he first got to Korea and didn’t know anything or have anyone to help him. More of the reason to talk to the boy, but Yuta was pretty sure he was Chinese, and Yuta knew absolutely no Chinese. Yuta sighed quietly and tried to focus on the professor’s lecture for the rest of class.

For some reason though, his curiosity kept him thinking about that boy.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope you liked this one, the in the next chapter the chat fic part of this work will start, so look forward to it!  
> Also I'm only planning to develop markhyuck and yuwin, but would you guys like some more development on taeil and winwin? Please comment your thots  
> Fun fact: the song that was Yuta's alarm in the beginning of the chapter is actually the One piece opening ;)
> 
> twit:@renjeolmii


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is quite the crack chapter, but here's a little guide for the usernames. If their stage name was different I just used their stage name.  
> teewhytrack= taeyong  
> crayolaMARKer= mark  
> snoops= jungwoo  
> octoprince= yuta  
> winwin= sicheng  
> haechan= donghyuck

_ 23:03  _

**_mark created new chat_ **

**_mark added haechan_ **

**_mark added octoprince_ **

**_mark added snoops_ **

**_mark added winwin_ **

**_mark added teewhytrack_ **

 

**_mark:_ ** hey guys

 

**_winwin changed mark to crayolaMARKer_ **

 

**_crayolaMARKer:_ ** wtf

**_snoops:_ ** idk abt u but i’ve never been to oovoo javer 

**_haechan:_ ** um i didn’t sign up for dead vines

 

**_crayolaMARKer added new bot “Dead meme exterminator”_ **

 

**_dead meme exterminator:_ ** hi! i’m here reporting for duty! hmm i sense some dead memes…

 

**_octoprince:_ ** mark lee remove that rn or i’m calling ur mom

**_octoprince:_ ** i have ms lee’s number don’t make me

**_crayolaMARKer:_ ** wait how do u have my moms number

**_octoprince:_ ** i’m in a group chat with ur parents

**_crayolaMARKer:_ ** …

 

**_crayolaMARKer removed bot “Dead meme exterminator”_ **

 

**_winwin:_ ** wait u know mark irl

**_octoprince:_ ** yea

**_winwin:_ ** also why tf is ur name octoprince like u into tentacle porn or something 

**_octoprince:_ ** first of all prefer not to state

**_octoprince:_ ** second of all u should not be telling me that my users weird, look at ur own @winwin

**_teewhytrack:_ ** anyways has anyone seen the new season of bnha yet

**_snoops:_ ** yea todoroki is my husband nya :3

**_haechan:_ ** @snoops stop that furry “nya :3” shit rn, if furries want to act like animals they deserve to be hunted like animals. https://change.org/exterminateallfurriespetition

**_teewhytrack:_ ** i signed it

**_winwin:_ ** me too 

**_snoops:_ ** this is racism at its finest

**_teewhytrack:_ ** not to be creepy but how old are all’ve yall

**_crayolaMARKer:_ ** 18

**_haechan:_ ** 18

**_octoprince:_ ** 22

**_winwin:_ ** 20

**_snoops:_ ** 19

**_teewhytrack:_ ** ok i’m 22 thank god we don’t have any fetuses in this gc 

**_crayolaMARKer:_ ** well haechan acts like hes still in the womb

**_winwin:_ ** u have no place to be saying anything abt acting like a child mark

 

Since the group chat started to die down, Sicheng decided to put his phone down and go to sleep. He’s gotten a total of 5 hours of sleep in the past 3 days, so Sicheng was really tired. He closed his heavy eyes and squeezed them shut, willing sleep to overcome him. He opened his eyes and looked at the clock. Only 2 minutes have passed. He tried again but could not calm his brain down.  _ That guy is so close to Mark, yet I have no idea who he is.  _ Sicheng and Mark have been friends for a long time, so they were pretty close. He thought he knew, for the most part, the people Mark hung out with, but I guess he was wrong. Sicheng tried to keep tabs on Mark’s antics, as Mark was like a little brother to him. Mark did drift around quite a bit though, he could chill with the jocks, nerds, theatre kids, anyone. Mark was just a likable guy, and Sicheng was proud of how he turned his life around since Mark was a bit of an arrogant fuckboy in high school.

_ I wonder what made him decide to have a “fuckmitzvah” but I’m glad he did. Ha, fuckmitzvah. I’ll have to tweet that later,  _ Sicheng thought, chuckling to himself.

Sighing, Sicheng picked up his phone and passively scrolled through Mark’s instagram. Sicheng the decided to look through who Mark was following trying to figure out which account was “octoprince”’s.  _ He’s gotta be following him on instagram.  _ But Sicheng had no success since he knew absolutely nothing about the mysterious guy. And Sicheng wasn’t about to just ask Mark right away.  _ As they say, curiosity killed the cat, so maybe I should take this a sign from the universe and just go to bed. I’ll just observe for a bit and try to get a bit more info on the guy. Wait, I don’t know if he even goes to our school or not.  _

_ 01: 24 _

**_winwin:_ ** wait so we’re all college age, what colleges do yall go to?

**_haechan:_ ** sooman university

**_teewhytrack:_ ** ayyy b me too

**_winwin:_ ** wtf me too

**_teewhytrack:_ ** but @haechan go to bed or ur not gonna wake up in time for elementary school tmwr

**_haechan:_ ** fuck off u dick im 18 im not that young

**_winwin:_ ** what kinda music do you guys listen to

**_teewhytrack:_ ** i like anything acoustic

**_snoops:_ ** GOOD THING U BRING THAT UP I JUST WENT TO A HATSUNE MIKU CONCERT YESTERDAY AND IT WAS LITTTTT

**_haechan:_ ** OMGGGG I WAS THERE TOO   
**_snoops:_ ** YOOOOOO WHAT SECTION   
**_haechan:_ ** FRONT ROWWW U KNOW I COPPED THEM GOOD GOOD SEATS

**_snoops:_ ** BOI U FUQIN LUCKY DID U GET A LIGHT STICK   
**_haechan:_ ** YOU KNOW IT [image attached]

**_snoops:_ ** ASDFGHJKL>P:YRCV!

**_teewhytrack:_ ** ok can yall stop typing in all caps like ouch my ears

**_winwin:_ ** ur such an old man 

**_haechan:_ ** ^^^

**_winwin:_ ** also snoops i thot u were asleep

**_snoops:_ ** i never sleep 

**_teewhytrack:_ ** so ur a vampire

**_snoops:_ ** yeppers

**_winwin:_ ** sweet now i have an occult friend

**_haechan:_ ** can u turn me plz 

**_snoops:_ ** nope 

**_haechan:_ ** why not

**_snoops:_ ** i dont feel like it

**_winwin:_ ** well then thats a bit suss, you know i dont think ur really a vampire at all. prove it.

**_snoops:_ ** rawr imma suck ur di- i mean blood

**_haechan:_ ** UM WHAT DID I SAY ABOUT THAT FURRY SHIT

**_snoops:_ ** sry 

 

**_snoops edited message to_ ** “boo imma suck ur blood”

 

**_snoops:_ ** happy?

**_teewhytrack:_ ** boys, i think we’re still gonna have to hunt him down. The damage is done. 

**_winwin:_ ** grab ur hunting rifles

**_haechan:_ ** ok but i have an 8 am class tmwr so i should really go to bed

**_teewhytrack:_ ** *whispers* fetus

**_snoops:_ ** yea sleep is for the weak 

**_winwin:_ ** actually imma go to bed too gn yall

**_teewhytrack:_ ** yall are pussys im gonna go watch brokeback mountain and watch some real men

 

Sicheng did not have enough energy to respond to the loaded statement that teewhytrack just sent, so he just threw his phone across his room not caring where it landed, and let sleep take over his body. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thanks for reading! the next chapter was gonna be 2, but I combined chapter 4 into one, so its quite long. look forward to future updates!
> 
> twit: @renjeolmii


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sry if theres typos i dont remeber if i proof read this or not
> 
> twit: @renjeolmii

Yuta awoke to bright sunlight filtering through his window, warming his face.  _ I wonder who drew my curtains because they were definitely closed before. I’m going to write it off as paranormal activity.  _ His first thought was  _ Shit I’m late for practice!  _ when he looked at the time, but then he remembered something. He had practice later today, because Coach had some scheduling conflicts, so Yuta was able to sleep in today. He unplugged his phone and started scrolling through his notifications.  _ God, 127 missed messages from Discord. Why would you stay up until 2 just to do nothing?  _ He then came across a set of messages, and his resting nice face turned into an annoyed frown.

**_octoprince started a new private chat_ **

**_octoprince:_ ** mark wtf i thot u said that there was only one other guy who went to our school

**_mark:_ ** yo fam im rly sry, they were just internet friends so i didnt know either i only know winwin irl

**_mark:_ ** dont worry if any of them ask me who u are i wont tell

**_octoprince:_ ** promise?

**_mark:_ ** promise. Dont worry man u think i would just expose u like that?

**_octoprince:_ ** yeah… i know u got my back i just really dont want it to get out that im a weeb it would rly ruin my street cred

**_mark:_ ** u dont have any street cred

**_octoprince:_ ** ok yea, but im like drake, i had a good upbringing and grew up in a nice area but im still a bad bitch

**_mark:_ ** k but drake s*cks

**_octoprince:_ ** bye we aint having this arguement again

 

It was only 9:17, and he didn’t have class until 11, so Yuta decided to relax and binge a “couple” episodes of Bleach before heading to the kitchen to get some breakfast. The strolled into the kitchen and saw that it was already 10:47.  _ Great, I’m still going to have to rush. God, why do I do this to myself.  _ Yuta grabbed a half eaten package of natto and some almond butter out of the fridge, threw on some clothes and rushed out of the apartment. Listen, just because Yuta is a foodie doesn’t mean he has a refined palette. He ran all the way to class but got there on time.  _ All this running everywhere sure is a pain but at least I’m getting sWoL aF in the process. _

Yuta didn’t have to sneak in for once, but he still sat in his usual seat by the door. 

“Ok class! So for your midterms, instead of having a test I decided to switch it up and we’re going to have a partner project!” The professor paused for a reaction from the class, but there was none. “Well, I’m merciful, but not that merciful, so I assigned partners already,” she said.  _ Fuuuuuck,  _ Yuta thought,  _ there’s like 150 kids in this class and most of them are do-nothing-assholes.  _ Contrary to popular belief, even though Yuta was one of the “popular kids”, he was a hard worker (in most classes) and wasn’t really aloof or egotistical. Not saying that all the popular kids are like Yuta though. 

“Jaemin and Jeno!”

“Doyoung and Chittaphon!”

“Yuta and Sicheng!” The professor announced

_ Who the fuck is Sicheng?  _ Yuta thought, confusion showing on his face. He mentally went through a list of everyone who it could be, but he couldn’t come up with anything.  _ I guess I’ll just wait til we’re dismissed and figure it out then.  _

The professor finished giving out the partners and then finished giving out information for the project, before excusing the class a bit early so they could discuss the project with their partners. Yuta walked up the stairs of the auditorium and went to go find Jaehyun. He found Jaehyun already talking to his partner, Taeyong. Taeyong made a kind of confused-uncomfortable face when he saw Yuta come over, but he didn’t notice.

“Hey, Jaehyun can I ask you a quick question?” Yuta asked

“Yeah, what is it?” Jaehyun replied turning to face Yuta.

He then leaned over to whisper in Jaehyun’s ear, “Do you who the fuck Sicheng is?” 

“Oh yeah, that’s him right there,” Jaehyun said, not so subtly pointing to a scrawny kid that had just walked over and started chatting with Taeyong. 

Yuta chuckled uncomfortably in embarrassment and then realized that Sicheng and the cute Chinese exchange student were the same person.  _ Ohhh so that’s what his name is.  _

“Hi Sicheng, I’m Yuta!” He greeted cheerfully, extending a hand to shake.

Sicheng then loudly clicked his tongue and rolled his eyes, “Sis, I’m very aware,” he said passively, keeping his hands firmly in the back pockets of his jeans. 

“Ooook then,” Yuta said retracting his hand, not knowing how to react.

_ Wow that was cold of him, I didn’t even bring a jacket today. I wonder what I did for him to outright hate me, we’ve never even spoken before.  _

He glanced over to Jaehyun for support, but Jaehyun just shrugged not knowing what to do either. 

“Hey, um, Jaehyun and I are gonna go ask Professor Kim about… the topics” Taeyong trailed off, before grabbing a confused Jaehyun and speed walking away.

_ Great. Now I’m stuck alone with a guy who already hates me. _

“So, can I get your contact info so we can discuss the project outside of class?” Yuta asked, extending his phone 

“Yeah sure whatever” Sicheng replied taking Yuta’s phone and typing in his info at the speed of light. He handed the phone back and Yuta realized that he didn’t put in a last name.  _ Dammit, having a last name makes it a lot easier to get info about him, well I don’t think there are many other Sichengs so I think I’ll be okay.  _

“Um, I’ll go ask Professor Kim what topic we’re assigned to, okay?” Yuta said, with no response from Sicheng. As he got the assignment from the professor, all Yuta was doing was thinking about what he could have possibly done to have Sicheng dislike him so much.  _ Well, he better suck it up quick because I’m not about to do all the work, and my grade is already suffering, I need to do well on these midterms.   _

“How about we meet up at Starfucks at 11 on Saturday to work on it?” Yuta inquired once he got back to where Sicheng was sitting. 

“Yea sure,” Sicheng said, “you better not fucking be late to it like you’re late to class everyday” he mumbled under his breath.

Yuta didn’t react, as he probably wasn’t really supposed to hear the last part, but he was still annoyed. Yuta grabbed his stuff, walked down the stairs, grabbed Jaehyun by the arm and stormed out of the auditorium. 

“Hey what was that for?! I was just about to get Taeyong’s number!” Jaehyun protested

“What do you think I did to Sicheng to deserve this treatment? He acts like I fucked his sister and punched his grandma!” Yuta said, “also secondly take your head out of your ass. You think that Taeyong would ever give you his phone number for anything other than a project? Like he’s a loser, but he’s not that pathetic.” Yuta lamented

“Oof that was harsh, and why do you care so much that the kid doesn’t like you?” Jaehyun responded.

_ Partially because I want everyone to like me, and partially because he’s hella cute.  _

“I just don’t want his pettiness to bring my grade down.”

“Ok, whatever it’s your problem but where are we even going?” Jaehyun asked

“To eat lunch with Johnny and Xuxi, duh.” 

They soon arrived to their usual hangout spot, and saw Johnny with Ten on his lap and his arm around Irene, and Xuxi squeezed in between Sana and Jungwoo. 

_ What kind of fucked up love triangle are my friends in.  _ Yuta thought. He and Jaehyun greeted them, before sitting down on a bench. 

Yuta’s friends sure were an interesting bunch, everyone thought that Jaehyun and Johnny were both straight as rulers, but in reality, they were as straight as circles. Irene and Johnny were best friends, so everyone thought they were dating, even though Ten was at Johnny’s house every night. JohnTen wasn’t technically official, to Yuta’s knowledge at least, but everyone in their friend group knew the real tea. Jaehyun has been pining after Taeyong since Freshman year, but even though he kinda roasted him earlier about it, Yuta really did hope that this project would allow Jaehyun to finally get with Taeyong. 

“As I was saying Sana, did you see when Nayeon fucked up that aerial at the last game? That was just pathetic” Ten gossiped

“Ugh yea, she hasn’t shown up to practice for days, probably hanging out with her boy-toy again. Serves her right.” Sana replied

_ Damn these cheerleaders are harsh.  _

“Hey,” Yuta interrupted, “Do y’all know anything about a kid named Sicheng?”

Jungwoo perked up, “Oh isn’t he the exchange student? I have Bio and Engineering with him, what do you want to know?”

Yuta sighed in relief, “Do you know any possible reason why he could hate me?”

“Really? He hates you? Are you sure he isn’t just having a bad day or something?” Jungwoo asked

“Why are you so surprised?” Yuta responded

“No, he’s just not a very hateful person,” Jungwoo said, concern in his voice.

_ Hmmm…. I didn’t think of that, maybe I’m just overreacting and worrying about this too much. I’ll try to cool it a bit.  _

There was a lull in the conversation, so Irene then started talking about some just girly things with Johnny and Sana. Yuta didn't really care, so he decided to open up discord.

 

**_octoprince:_ ** whats up im bored

**_haechan:_ ** hi bored, im haechan nice to meet you

**_winwin:_ ** real smooth there

**_Winwin:_ ** ugh im at a library rn and this guy wont stop staring at me 

**_octoprince:_ ** wow thats creepy

**_winwin:_ ** ikr

**_crayolaMARKer:_ ** GUYS GUYS GUYS GUESS WHAT   
**_octoprince:_ ** did ur mom cancel ur xbox live

**_crayolaMARKer:_ ** I RAN INTO MY CRUSH EARLIER AND HE SAID I LOOKED NICE TODAY

**_octoprince:_ ** ew cooties 

**_winwin:_ ** tbh sounds like something hy*ck would do 

**_winwin:_ ** well good luck on ur love endeavors or wtvr

**_teewhytrack:_ ** aw our babys all grown up soon he’ll be married w kids uwu

**_haechan:_ ** didgeriDONT “uwu” not on MY christian minecraft server!

**_octoprince:_ ** k but i need help theres a person in my class thats hella cute but they hate me and idk what to do

**_teewhytrack:_ ** why

**_octoprince:_ ** idk

**_winwin:_ ** just be super nice and prove that ur a good guy so they wont have a reason to hate you

**_octoprince:_ ** yo thats a good idea thx fam

**_teewhytrack:_ ** ugh can we stop talking abt romance stuff i wanna kms

 

_ Maybe I’ll just take winwin’s advice and not fret it. I’ll deal with Sicheng’s ass later there’s not really anything I can do right now. _

 

\----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

 

Sicheng had his eyes closed trying to block out the droning of his professor and sleep, but when he heard the word “midterms” from the professor, he decided to listen. 

“Ok class! So for your midterms, instead of having a test I decided to switch it up and we’re going to have a partner project!” 

Sicheng got an instant headache after hearing that sentence, and slowly lifted his head up, still very sleepy, to hear who his partner would be. 

“Yuta and Sicheng!” 

It took a second for Sicheng to put a face to the name, but when he remembered who Yuta was he grimaced.  _ God, the purple haired one. He’s just a dumb jock and I’m gonna have to do all the work like always. Literally all he has going for him is that he’s hot.  _

Once the teacher dismissed the class, he tried to talk to everyone else before going to Yuta. He chatted with Jeno a little bit before Jeno was whisked away by Jaemin, and then decided to go talk to his favorite hyung, Taeyong. 

“Hey Yongie! Did you see that they announced Kingdom Hearts 3?” Sicheng greeted, trotting over to Taeyong.

“Yeah! I’m so excited, but did you also see the whole thing where Sony is being a lil bitch and not allowing cross-play for Fallout 76. Complete bs.” Taeyong added

Before Sicheng could respond, he sees someone pointing at him and looked up to see Jaehyun and Yuta whispering about something.  _ Fuuuuck I forgot Taeyong and Jaehyun were partners.  _

“Hi Sicheng, I’m Yuta!” Yuta said and flashed a megawatt smile.  _ Lord he really is smoking up close.  _

Sicheng then pulled the shadiest, most judgemental actions he could muster, and replied with a snarky “Sis, I’m already aware.”  _ Honestly though why would he even bother to introduce himself, everybody knows him, but I know for sure he did not know who I was. Bitch I’m hidden.  _

Yuta just awkwardly stood there.  _ I thought he was supposed to be the “charisma king”, does he not know how to react to a little shade? Wow I’m disappointed.  _

Then Taeyong made some dumb excuse and left with Jaehyun.  _ Honestly, I would leave this situation too if I could.  _ Yuta handed Sicheng his phone to put his contact info into, and Sicheng was surprised how boring Yuta’s phone was. Black case, default lock and home screens.  _ And he’s boring too? I’m really not looking forward to this.  _ He gave the phone back, and Yuta shot him an expectant look like he wanted Sicheng to give him his phone.  _ Um no honey, I am not instantly exposing my weeb side to a practical stranger.  _ Yuta then made some pathetic excuse to leave. Sicheng really did not think of himself as that high and mighty, but this guy was the lowest of the low, just some egotistical dick who probably had a girl for each day of the week. A complete scumbag. He turned on his phone and opened Tumblr to the latest Haikyuu fic that he was reading to distract himself in the meantime. Yuta came back in a couple minutes and said something about meeting sometime. Sicheng wasn’t really paying attention and didn’t really care. Knowing Yuta he’d be late. 

“You better not fucking be late to it like you’re late to class everyday,” Sicheng mumbled, just loud enough for Yuta to hear him. 

Yuta looked pissed, and Sicheng smirked in satisfaction before Yuta ran off to god knows where. 

Sicheng just resumed position on his phone and opened iMessage. 

**  
** **_Sicheng:_ ** sis GUESS who my partner is for our midterm project

**_Kun:_ ** good or bad

**_Sicheng:_ ** bad

**_Kun:_ ** taeil?

**_Sicheng:_ ** no not that bad

**_Kun:_ ** idk tell me

**_Sicheng:_ ** yuta

**_Kun:_ ** oh i dont think hes that bad, hes been nothing but nice to me

**_Sicheng:_ ** yea but hes a douche and imma have to do all the work

**_Kun:_ ** ok well idk enough to confirm or deny that

**_Kun:_ ** we’ll talk later, i need to go i dont want professor park to bust my ass again for texting in class

**_Sicheng:_ ** ok bye bitch~

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> heyy this was a long chapter and the next is a bit of filler, but it shows another plot line i guess i already wrote it bc i have a system im kinda tipsy rn when im posting this so sry thanks for yalls support it rly keeps me motivated! im hoping to make the main plot line chapters abt this long also im sry drake fans


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> sorry for the delayed update, this is kinda a filler chapter since I've been kinda busy bc i have summer school and stuff but anyways enjoy!
> 
> twit: @renjeolmii

It was a nice relaxing Friday, and Mark was actually excited to go Theater practice. Mark was part of the technical theater staff, and they were just notified that they were going to put on a modern musical about Taejong of Joseon. Although the play itself was quite interesting in itself, as Mark was a bit of a history buff, but that’s not why he was excited. He was excited because Donghyuck had one of the lead roles in the play, and since Mark specialized in sound monitoring he got to listen to Donghyuck’s beautiful voice all day. Mark arrived at the theater and almost ran into a background panel that some kids were painting. He spotted Jisung and Chenle in the distance and trotted over to them.

“Hey guys!” he greeted cheerfully, but then saw Chenle blushing profusely. 

“Um, am I interrupting something?” Mark asked tentatively. 

“Oh uh nothing we were doing nothing how are you Mark hyung” Jisung nervously replied, tripping over his words. With that, Mark sighed.

_ Lord, they’re whipped for each other, when will they just get together?  _

Mark decided to just ignore what happened, “Not much, but Professor Lee lost my test AGAIN. I swear to god he hates me.”

“Damn that’s rough, hope you get it sorted out,” Jisung responded, “also mark..” he said dragging out each word

“What is it,” Mark said, getting the feeling that Jisung wanted something.

“Can I get the answers for the Chem homework?” Jisung asked, clasping his hands together and flashing puppy dog eyes. 

Mark paused for a second, shooting Jisung a disappointed look before giving up. 

“Fine. But if you keep skipping class I’m not gonna bail you out again.” He mumbled before rummaging in his bag and pulling out a crumpled piece of paper.

“HeLLo gAySsS~” a voice singsonged from behind him. Mark recognized the voice instantly and then felt a hand grab his shoulder. He turned around to look at the other guy. 

_ Of course it’s Hyuck.  _

“How art my fellow homos doing on this fine spring day” Donghyuck greeted. There was a moment of silence, and Mark was frozen in place, hyper aware of Hyuck still touching his shoulder. Luckily Chenle decided to speak up, 

“Donkey you know you don’t have to greet us like that e v e r y  s i n g l e d a y.” He scoffed.

“Wow. You are disrespecting a future US army soldier.” Donghyuck replied pouting with crossed arms. Mark didn’t really like Vine, rest in peace, but Hyuck pouty was very cute.

“Chensung still in denial about each other?” Donghyuck asked turning to Mark.

“Yep.” 

“What are you guys talking about?” Chenle asked, playing dumb.

Mark and Donghyuck sighed and rolled their eyes in unison as Chenle and Jisung both started to blush. 

“Oh, by the way Mark, you look really nice today~” Donghyuck commented before skipping off to chat with another group of people.

The three of them just kind of stood there stunned, all for different reasons, but no one knew how to break the awkward silence. Luckily, the drama teacher called for everyone to get ready to rehearse, and Mark speed walked over to the audio booth. 

He plopped down in his chair and quickly greeted Wooseok before shoving his headphones on and starting the sound checks. The rehearsal ran pretty smoothly, except for Renjun slipping on a prop banana peel. Mark never knew you could actually slip on a banana peel like in the movies, but Renjun somehow managed to.    
  


———————

Theater practice had just ended, and Donghyuck was waiting for Jaemin to pick him up.

Suddenly Donghyuck felt his phone go off in his pocket and took his phone out hoping that it was Jaemin since that lil shit was late, but then saw that it was his group chat

 

**_crayolaMARKer:_ ** I RAN INTO MY CRUSH EARLIER AND HE SAID I LOOKED NICE TODAY

**_octoprince:_ ** ew cooties 

**_winwin:_ ** tbh sounds like something hy*ck would do 

 

 _Wait wait wait. What?_ _That askrick did nothing, winwins obviously talking me… but I’m in the group chat. I guess they don’t know that I’m haechan. crayolaMARKer is pretty obviously Mark. He always acts kinda weird around me so now I know why. Wow I’m still reaally shooketh though. Like, Mark? Since when?_

Donghyuck didn’t know what to say in the group chat or maybe he just shouldn’t say anything. He didn’t feel like revealing his identity so he chose the latter and just stayed silent. 

_ I mean I never really thought about Mark like that, I’m just kinda surprised. But he isn’t that bad looking now that I think about it. Maybe I’ll give him a chance as he’s obviously whipped. _

He then saw a notification pop up that Jaemin was (finally) on his way. Hyuck waited another 30 minutes (he could’ve walked home in that time) until Jaemin finally pulled up

“What the fuck took you so long? I’ve been waiting for an hour!” Donghyuck lamented

“Sorry I was at Jeno’s and I, uh, lost track of time.” Jaemin sheepishly admitted

“Youshouldn’tvesuckedthe***dickforfree. I wasted so much time waiting for ur gay ass” Donghyuck asked, reading Jaemin to filth.

Jaemin looked a bit shocked at first but then responded with a quiet,“You know Jeno’s got that high class dick, his is some dìqúe.”

Soon after Jaemin swore loudly and almost hit 2 other cars, nearly giving Hyuck a stroke.  _ I really not trust my life with this man, it’s probably faster to walk home anyway. _

_ “ _ Sorry, gays can’t drive.” Jaemin said shrugging.

Once Jaemin dropped Hyuck off at his dorm, Donghyuck speed walked up to his flat and collapsed on the couch, letting out a loud moan, not caring if his roommates where home or not. He had barely enough energy to look at his phone so he decided to open up the groupchat.

 

**_haechan:_ ** is anyone a cassiopeia?

**_snoops:_ ** hi im trey and i have a basketball game tomorrowwwww

**_teewhytrack:_ ** wtf

**_haechan:_ ** ^^^

**_snoops:_ ** sorry imj durnk

**_haechan:_ ** but its 14:00 on a tuesday

**_snoops:_ ** anythime id drinking time beaxh

**_snoops:_ ** ive got the muchiws tho doesb anyone wanna bring me chipotlre or just amny food

**_crayolaMARKer:_ ** sry i’m too gay to cook hnnnnnn

**_teewhytrack:_ ** i can bring u soup

**_teewhytrack:_ ** split pea or cream of mushroom?

**_haechan:_ ** @ the one time gordon ramsey dragged ur eggs

**_snoops:_ ** split pea duj! Cram of mushrooom fuqing sucks ass ha i alaso suck asss o guess mee and mushroomes are siblingzs lmao XD

**_octoprince:_ ** ok idk wtf kinda logic that is but take care and stay safe snoops <3

**_crayolaMARKer:_ ** @haechan wait how do u know that

**_haechan:_ ** yo it’s obviously u mark

**_crayolaMARKer:_ ** wait do i know u who are u 

**_haechan:_ ** yes u do know me irl but it would be no fun if i just revealed myself right away ;)

**_haechan:_ ** lets just say u would be surprised when u find out who i am

**_octoprince:_ ** ooh mysterious scooby dooby doo where are you?

**_snoops:_ ** i have some guesses

**_winwin:_ ** whatever guys do u know where i could watch love stage i dont have crunchyroll premium

**_octoprince:_ ** here u can borrow my acc, i’ll send it thru dms

**_haechan:_ ** ok imma go i have to study for my calc exam bye fam


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so i had some technical difficulties posting this chapter (it was supposed to go up 2 days ago) but hope you enjoy, also i apologise if there are any grammatical errors because i wasn’t able to run this chapter through a grammar checker (like i normally do)

Saturday

 

Yuta awoke to inseccent pinging from his phone. 

_ 6:32 am? Really who’s up this goddamn early? _

 

**_(123) 420-6969 wants to send you a message_ **

 

**_(123) 420-6969_ ** hi it’s sicheng

**_(123) 420-6969_ ** are we meeting today

**_(123) 420-6969_ ** and what time i forgot

 

_ God this kid. Triple texting? WHy can’t he just put in one message?  _ Yuta thought, shaking his head.

 

**_(666) 789-8008_ ** uh good morning? We’re meeting at 11 

**_(123) 420-6969_ ** k thx 

 

Since he was awake now (thanks to Sicheng), Yuta had two options of what to do to pass the time. One, start research for the project he had with Sicheng, which would be getting ahead of the game, or go back to bed and risk be late. Knowing Yuta, he picked the latter. He rolled over and shoved his face into his pillow, blocking out the rising sun’s rays that were filtering into his room. When he awoke from his beauty sleep and checked his phone for this time. Kids at home, can you guess what time it was? That’s right, 10:56. Yuta was going to be late again, what a surprise. He really could not control his chronic lateness though, this time Yuta especially wanted to not be late, just to prove Sicheng wrong. But that’s not what the universe had planned for him. Yuta washed up and threw on outfit that he had picked out the night before (Come on, this wasn’t his first time that he had to get ready quickly, and even though Sicheng hated him, Yuta still thought he had a chance). 

He arrived, mildly sweaty, luckily only 6 minutes late. That was early in his book.

Yuta walked into the coffee shop proud of his timing, bell dinging as he opened the door. He scanned the area for Sicheng and spotted him talking to Taeyong. He walked over, but before he interrupted their conversation he stood and and overheard Taeyong say, 

“to make a long fucking story short, I put a whole bag of jelly beans up my ass.”

Sicheng then nodded empathetically before noticing Yuta, and instantly frowning. Taeyong said goodbye to Sicheng and trotted away to go order his drink.

“Oh it’s you. Late as always, I was naive to think you could actually be here on time.” Sicheng scoffed dramatically, and Yuta didn’t know how to react.

“Okay Mr. Ice King, listen here,” Yuta said leaning closer and lowering his voice, “I don’t know what the fuck I did to you, but you better cut the attitude right now, because we have a big project and BOTH of our grade are on the line. Got it?” Yuta intensely scanned Sicheng’s face to see if his intimidation worked. Luckily it did, and Sicheng was making an uncomfy face. Yuta was assertive and wasn’t afraid to stand up for himself, but he wasn’t a bad guy and hated seeing people be sad or uncomfortable.

So, when he saw Sicheng looking down at his feet and biting his lips, Yuta said

“Hey, I really don’t want to have bad blood between us, you actually seem pretty cool and whatever I did, I’m sorry. I just wish you would stop being blatantly rude for no apparent reason, it’s immature, come on we’re in college.” 

Sicheng was silent for a couple of seconds, mulling over whether or not to accept Yuta’s apology of sorts. Those few seconds seemed to last ages, but, to Yuta’s relief, Sicheng looked up meeting his eyes with a small smile. 

“Okay okay, you’ve guilted me, I will make FEWER rude comments. You’re still not completely off the hook though. You still need to prove to me that you’re not a complete douchy fuckboy.” Sicheng’s budding smile retracting back into a more serious face.

“Is that really what people think of me?” Yuta asked, cocking his head to the side

Sicheng sighed, “You really are a dumb fuck” he said, a bit more teasingly than before. 

“Ok then, should we sit down and order?” Sicheng added. 

They dumped their bags down at a nearby table and started flipping through the menu. 

_ Hmm, should I get a pinkity drinkity or a latte. Pinkity drinkitys are tasty, but also embarrassing, so I guess I’ll get a boring ol’ latte.  _ Yuta set down his menu to quickly catch a guess of Sicheng with his brows furrowed focusedly staring at the menu, with his face buried in it. Honestly it was really cute how focused he was, but Yuta made sure to not stare. Then, a waiter came up to their table, 

“Are you guys ready to order?” 

Sicheng’s head whipped up to look at the waiter, with a sound of surprise slipping out of his mouth. Yuta looked at Sicheng, then the waiter, then back at Sicheng in confusion. 

“Taeil?!” Sicheng exclaimed

“Oh good morning Sicheng! Didn’t notice you came in” The waiter replied with a warm smile, “I didn’t expect to see you here, you never come to this Starfucks, “ he said with a little pout, “Hey actually some of my friends and I are going to karaoke tomorrow night, would you like to come?” The waiter said, full of hope.

“Um actually, aish, uh,” Sicheng mumbled avoiding eye contact, “I actually have to work on my project with Yuta here tomorrow night.”

Yuta looked at Sicheng in confusion, but then he caught on and nodded firmly. 

“Oh, that’s too bad. I need to do my job though, so what would y’all like to order?” The waiter replied amicably

“Ah, I’ll have a medium latte, with soy milk please” 

“And you?” He averted his gaze in Sicheng’s direction

“I’ll have the cold foam cascara cold brew please.”

“Coming right up!” The waiter exclaimed walking back to the counter

Yuta contemplated whether to inquire Sicheng about what the just happened or not, but he decided to anyways 

“Um, not to pry, but who the fuck was that?” Yuta inquired

“Sigh… so his name’s Taeil, and, okay so long story short, he has a huge crush on me but I think it’s really creepy so I try to avoid him at costs.” Sicheng replied rolling his eyes in disgust

“Why does he keep trying if he knows that you’re not interested?”

“He doesn’t.”

“What?”

“He doesn’t know I don’t like him. Yeah I know I need to tell him all of my friends have already lectured me on it,” Sicheng lamented.

“He seems like a decent guy though, do you have a girlfriend or something like that?” Yuta asked.

Sicheng burst out laughing,

“What’s so funny?” 

“Bless our heavenly father, but it’s just th-that you thoughT I w-was straight?” Sicheng replies wiping tears away from his eyes, “to answer that no. I do not have a girlfriend.”

“Do you have a boyfriend then?” 

“hELL no sis, I’ve been single for a long time, but... why would you want to know?” 

“Can’t a man have a sense of curiosity?” Yuta remarked as Sicheng looked at him with a distrustful look, “Ok we should actually get started on our work though.”

Sicheng nodded in reluctant agreement and whipped out his phone. Yuta noticed the large anime phone charm hanging off it. He recognized the art style and uniform but couldn’t remember the character it was of.

“Hey, is that a Haikyuu phone charm?” Yuta asked, pointing at it.

“Uh yeah, you like anime?” Sicheng asked in surprise.

Yuta panicked and replied with a smooth “Ah uh my sister watches it a lot, and I just recognized the art style. I don’t really watch it.” Sicheng didn’t doubt his lie, even though Yuta’s sister has a weird vendetta against anime and calls Yuta a weeb at any opportunity. 

Despite their rocky beginning, the rest of their meeting went smoothly, and Sicheng had warmed up quite a bit to Yuta by the end. They cracked a couple jokes at Taeil’s expense, but they actually worked really well together and got quite a bit done. On top of that, Yuta was able to see Sicheng genuinely smile for the first time, which practically made Yuta’s heart melt. 

_ I told myself I wouldn’t get this whipped for another boy ever again, but here we are and I don’t know how to get out of it. _

“Hey so since I told Taeil that we were meeting tomorrow, I kinda gotta stick to it so do you wanna meet up at the library at 7?” Sicheng asked reluctantly.

“Ok, but I’m only agreeing because I don’t want you to get caught.” Yuta said.

_ I just want to see that beautiful smile of yours again. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> twit: @renjeolmii


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I just wanted to Thank you guys again for the support i got a surprisingly high amount of kudos from last 2 updates. I’ve been having a bit of inner turmoil with this story, i’ve read through it quite a few times and i recognize many of the plot mistakes or things that i would like to change, such as with the characters (how it’s really inconsistent, especially for sicheng, i’ve accidentally written him so he rarely acts in accordance with his character) and just the build/ tension of the story. i know the direction i want to take this story in, and i have a plan, it’s just been a bit difficult to write, knowing that i can’t really erase my mistakes i kinda just have to back track.  
> WARNING: Descriptions of violence at the end of the chapter, starts when Sicheng goes to answer the door and continues to end (pretty much just the last paragraph).  
> Also little side note: I mention CoCo, which i’m not sure if many people know, but it’s a popular bubble tea chain in China, but heheeheh i didn’t even check if they have branches in Korea. Also idk why i didn’t mention this earlier but the names in text (not discord) conversations are of what the current pov has it saved as in their phone. Also sorry if there had been any confusion due to my inconsistency between military time and standard time, I try to keep the time stamps in military time (as i find it easier to understand) and the dialogue in standard 12-hour time. Finally, Chenle and jisung go to nearby highschool, but are enrolled in a couple programs at soo man university (i.e theater). welp that concludes this chunk of word vomit, hope you enjoy!!

15:27 Saturday

 

He turned the key and the door swung open and almost hit the wall. Sicheng cautiously stepped into the apartment.

“Chenle?” 

Sicheng’s voice echoed, with no response from said boy.  _ It’s almost 3:30 he should be home by now.  _ He called again, but this time heard some soft noises coming from Chenle’s room. Sicheng tiptoes over towards the door, pressing his ear to the wall to listen in. He can’t make out the words, but he hears Chenle’s voice. But wait, it sounds like there’s someone else also?  _ That fucking punk, he’s supposed to tell me if he’s having company. But he probably didn’t expect me to be home early, so maybe it’s someone he didn’t want me to know of. Hmmm this might be interesting… _

Sicheng held his breath, listening further. He heard what sounds like, whimper? It was soft but it was DEFINITELY a whimper. Sicheng huffed but leaned into the wall once again.  _ WHat, okay, now there’s someone whispering. Okay, okay Sicheng calm down. He’s not a child, for god’s sake he’s 17. BUT, Chenle’s still too young to be doing stuff like that. _ (Note: Sicheng has been “doing stuff like that” since freshman year of high school)

Spare the courtesy knock, Sicheng burst the door open to see, yep, Chenle and Jisung making out on the bed half naked. They immediately jumped up though at the loud slam of the door opening. All three of them stood there for a second, Chenle and Jisung both looking down at their feet knowing what’s to come. Sicheng took an audible breath before exploding. 

“ZHONG CHENLE! I AM CHANNELLING MERCY FROM OUR LORD ABOVE TO KEEP CALM AND NOT GROUND YOUR ASS RIGHT NOW YOU KNOW YOU’RE SUPPOSED TO TELL ME WHEN YOU’RE HAVING PEOPLE OVER, AND YOU BROKE THAT RULE TO DO THE NASTY WITH JISUNG? I CANNOT BELIEVE THAT YOU WOULD SO BLATANTLY DISOBEY THE HOUSE RULES LIKE THAT? I MIGHT EVEN TELL THE PARENTS” Sicheng yelled, slipping into Chinese dialect.

“um but we weren’t even going to do anyt-” Chenle admitted.

“Uh no, LeT mE FiNiSh. YOUR ONLY SAVING GRACE IS THAT IT’S JISUNG WHO I KNOW IS A GOOD KID BUT CHENLE YOU HAVE A LOT OF EXPLAINING TO DO AND YOU BETTER NOT TRY TO LIE AGAIN.” 

Sicheng glared at the two, waiting for a response. Even though Jisung didn’t understand what they were saying, he could still tell what was going on and looked to Chenle for support. 

“Okay,” Chenle started, “I admit that I should’ve told you I was having Jisung over-”

“But you still didn’t even though I would’ve been totally fine with it?”

“Well, it just slipped my mind, I’m sorry gege, it was a last minute thing… just please don’t tell mom and dad?” Chenle reasoned.

Sicheng mulled it over for a bit, “Okay I won’t tell mom and dad,” 

Chenle sighed in relief.

“BUT. That doesn't mean you’re getting off scot-free.” Sicheng said waving his index finger, “You’re not allowed to invite anyone over for the next month.”

“b-but…” Chenle stuttered

“Ah aH AH, don’t even try to negotiate. I’m actually being quite merciful, I could’ve banned you from seeing Jisung for a month, but Jisung is a good kid and isn’t a bad influence so I don’t think he deserves to be punished.” Sicheng remarked.

“Um, sorry to interrupt, but what’s the situation? Y’all know I don’t know Chinese right?” Jisung asked

“Oh right,” Sicheng said, switching back into Korean, “everything’s fine. Just Jisung, be a dear and pack up your stuff, no rush, and get out. Chenle is banned from having anyone over for a month.”

Jisung grabbed his shirt and backpack and hustled out of the room. 

“Ok Lele, now that I’ve given you an attitude adjustment, I need to go work on my homework. Don’t bother me.” Sicheng walked to the front door to get his backpack, where Jisung was hurriedly putting his shoes on. Sicheng made a small sigh of disappointment and then returned to his room. 

Sicheng and Chenle’s parents were pretty well off and were both highly involved in the Shanghai real estate market, making it so they had to stay in Shanghai. They decided to send the boys to Korea for their studies, and luckily for Sicheng and Chenle, they were able to live in a spacious apartment by themselves in the heart of Seoul, due to their parents’ real estate connections of course. Their parents were always busy, so Sicheng and Chenle rarely even got to spend time with them when they lived in China. Since they had limited contact, they only told their parents something if it was a serious issue. Therefore, Sicheng and Chenle had a very close bond, and Sicheng was very protective of his younger brother. 

Sicheng slumped down on his bed, opening his laptop to the project he and Yuta were working on earlier. Their meetup went better than expected, but Sicheng wouldn’t necessarily say it was good. Yuta is actually less of a dick than he thought, but he definitely has a lot of skeletons in the closet, Sicheng could sense that. Yuta also did “that one thing” which Sicheng could just not forget or forgive. Besides the point, the actual project itself wasn’t that hard, it was just a lot of research which he had already done. Even though it wasn’t difficult, Sicheng got easily bored so he decided to make himself an iced coffee and facetime Kun. He sat down at the dining table and filled Kun in on the events of the past couple of hours. 

“Okay so, you need to reject Taeil and tell him the truth like come on dude, I feel bad for him,” Kun admitted

“Yeah, but what if he suddenly hates me or tries to get revenge or some shit.”

“Come on bro, we’re adults and stuff like that only happens in movies. It’ll be fine, he probably be sad, but who wouldn’t? Just get it over with.”

“Okay, okay, I WILL. But I should go work on my homework now, so… see you on monday I guess~” Sicheng said, clicking his phone off. 

_ Now that I’ve had that little break I should be able to focus.  _ Sicheng thought, resuming position in front of his computer. After just staring at his shared google doc for a minute or so, Sicheng felt his phone buzz beside him and retrieved it. 

**_teewhytrack:_ ** howre allve yall yeehaw 

**_snoops:_ ** good 

**_winwin:_ ** i mean other than the fact that we’re all gonna die eventually, good

**_haechan:_ ** okay cut the formalities i actually need advice 

**_teewhytrack:_ ** what is it hun

**_haechan:_ ** okay let’s throw out a hypothetical, let’s say that someone really likes you, like romantically, but you don’t reciprocate should i be blunt with them and tell them i’m not into them like that, or just let it kinda die out in it’s own

**_winwin:_ ** ok first of all by the way you changed to saying “I” halfway through, this isn’t a hypothetical but in my opinion i always like having a heads up you know, communication is important for any relationship, not just a romantic one

**_teewhytrack:_ ** secondly you should put yourself in their shoes, would you like to be pining after someone, thinking you could have a chance eventually, but you never even had a chance to begin with. ultimately it’s ur life but i think you should tell them instead of blindly leading them on

**_snoops:_ ** wow that was profound i’m not old enough to give advice sry ;( 

**_crayolaMARKer:_ ** lol me neither sry fam

**_snoops:_ ** *mumbles* yea ur old enough to steal my strawberry yoplait from the office fridge tho 

**_crayolaMARKer:_ ** but i don’t even have a job??

**_snoops:_ ** besides the point

**_haechan:_ ** ok thanks everyone (exclude sn*ops and crayolaM*RKer) for the advice, i’ll think about it

**_teewhytrack:_ ** just don’t make impulse decisions tho those never turn out well

**_haechan:_ ** k thanks mommy

 

The conversation arised a person from the back of his mind he had been trying not to think about, Taeil.

_ You know everyone always says I should just rip off the bandaid and confront him, you know what… I’ll do it right now! That way I won’t have time to get nervous and worry about it. I just need to man up and do it! This has been plaguing my life for years now and it would be cruel to keep him in the dark, even though I think I make it pretty obvious. Ok Sicheng, as all those cheesy lifestyle people on the internet say, no time better than the present I should just get this over with! _

Normally, it was to his dismay that he and Taeil had each other’s numbers but this is the one time it came in handy.

 

23:47

**_sicheng:_ ** hey can you meet me asap at the coco on 6th? i need to talk to you about something 

 

**_taeil ugh >:( _ **  Okay, I’ll come. See you in a few~

 

Sicheng took the bus, luckily there weren’t many people on it, and the ride was pretty short. He stepped off the bus, crisp air hitting him as he did so. He passed dimly lit restaurants and flicking signs. This area consisted mainly of family-owned businesses, spare a couple bars, but since it was fairly late it looked like an abandoned ghost town. CoCo wasn’t hard to spot, as it was one of the only businesses open at this hour, staying open until 3 am. He went up to the counter, ordered his usual, taro milk tea with sago, as always. He sat down on a metal chair, absentmindedly staring at the posters on the wall and rehearsing for the umpteenth time what he was gonna say to Taeil. The bell on the door jingled, causing Sicheng to look up and meet eyes with the man he had been stressing about all this time, Taeil. 

“Hey, order your drink first and then we’ll talk,” Sicheng said, sparing the small talk.

“Okay then... what drinks are good here? I’ve only been here once or twice before.” Taeil admitted.

“Mmm, they’re all good but the matcha latte with red bean is one of my personal favourites.” 

“Okay that sounds good, I’ll order that then.”

Soon after Taeil sat across from him, studying Sicheng’s expression. 

“Hey, so what did you want to talk to me about? It seems serious.” 

“Yeah, okay uh I'll just cut to the chase. I haven’t been completely truthful with you.” Sicheng rambled

“Okayyy… elaborate?” Taeil asked cautiously

“Order number 69, Order number 69!” The barista called, scanning for the recipient of the drink.

“Oh shoot that’s me,” Taeil said jumping up.

Sicheng watched the exchange and instantly started to doubt his decision. 

_ Wait I haven’t really thought of all the possibilities of how he could react, Like what if he starts crying or gets mad, what do I do? _

Sicheng played with the hem of his shirt nervously until Taeil came back. 

“Okay, as you were saying?” 

“Um, okay okay I’ll just get it over with. I know you like me. But I do not feel the same way, and that is not subject to change.” Sicheng said firmly, eyes glued to his beat up Nike Air Force Ones, scared to look up and see Taeil’s reaction. There was no audible reaction, so he eventually looked up to see Taeil’s nose reddening and eyes starting to water. 

_ Shit shit shit he’s gonna start crying! What do I do? _

Taeil then took a couple deep breaths that cleared any signs of emerging tears, but his voice still wavered, “Okay, that is really not what I was expecting to hear from you today, but you really mean what you said? I’m just quite shocked that you figured out. I didn’t have any bad intentions but I still think you’re a really chill person in general, like can we still be friends or something though?” 

_ Well, we were never friends from my perspective, but how do I say that without hurting him more? _

“Yes I meant what I said, and it’s nothing against you, but I don’t want it to be awkward, so it might be better if we don’t talk as much, if that’s okay with you?” Sicheng said, looking up to Taeil. Raw pain flashed in Taeil’s eyes briefly, which Sicheng didn’t catch, he looked quite calm and collected to Sicheng’s relief. 

“I’m glad you are telling me this, and that we are handling this like adults. I will respect your wishes and leave you alone. I need to get home and study for a test, Goodbye Sicheng.” Taeil announced, gathering his untouched drink and leaving the establishment.

Sicheng sighed in relief, Kun was right (as always) and he was glad that Taeil took it pretty well. Or so he thought. Little did he know that the moment that the cafe door closed, tears started pouring out of Taeil’s eyes. Red, puffy eyes. Face tight from dried tears. Sustained for hours without end. All because of Sicheng’s naivety.

 

——————————————————————————————————

 

Sunday 19:00 

 

To Sicheng’s surprise, Yuta arrived at the library spot on at 7 o’clock. 

“Oh hey! I’m surprised you made it” Sicheng remarked. 

“Well yeah, why wouldn’t I?” Yuta obliviously asked, Sicheng rolling his eyes. 

They sat down at a large empty table in the corner and started unpacking their stuff.

“How’s your day been so far?” Yuta inquired casually.

“Um, actually really good, I’ve got some stuff done that I had needed to do for a long time, so I feel pretty relieved, what about you?” 

“You know the usual, soccer game, had some drinks with the boys last night, typical weekend” Yuta shrugged.

“That’s nice” Sicheng haphazardly said.

They turned their focus on their laptops before Yuta started rummaging in his bag for something. Finally finding it he whipped out a bag of shrimp chips triumphantly. Sicheng cringed at how loudly Yuta was opening the bag but Yuta offered him some. 

“Thanks.”

But then Sicheng realized something,

“Goddammit! I left my notes at home!”

“Well that’s okay, you can just add to them later.”

“No, I did all of the research and it just needs to be typed, I’ll just run back home real quick and grab them,” Sicheng said in annoyance.

“How long is your house from here?” Yuta inquired.

“Uh it’s like a 25 minute bus ride from here,” Sicheng answered, “Lemme just run home quickly and I’ll be back in like an hour or so.”

“Oh okay, but how about I just come with you instead of waiting?” Yuta said.

Sicheng racked his brain, but couldn’t come up with a good excuse, “sure whatever.”

They gathered their things and filed onto the bus. Soon enough they were standing in front of the apartment door, Sicheng fiddling with the keys.

_ Please god not let Chenle be home. I beg of you. _

The Lord was on his side today, because he wasn’t home, as Sicheng knew Chenle would ask hella questions about Yuta and why they were hanging out, and Sicheng did not have enough energy for that right now. 

“Woah! This place is nice! And it’s so big, do you live alone?” Yuta remarked.

“No, I live with my little bro.”

“Oh cool, where do your parents live then?”

“In China.” Sicheng said, trying to keep the small talk to a minimum, but Yuta didn’t really get the message. 

“That’s cool, my parents are back in Osaka. I really miss them but I think I’ve created a pretty good life for myself here in Korea.”

_ Cool I didn’t ask.  _

“Uh, you can just wait here, I’ll just get my stuff really quick, there’s a couple Yakult in the fridge, help yourself.” Sicheng said, scuttling into his room and slamming the door behind him. Sicheng bedroom was filled with posters and figures from different franchises and animes and he was not about to expose himself like that.

He looked to his bed where there were papers spread all over and started to dig through. 

As every second passed, he became increasingly and increasingly stressed. His notes were nowhere to be found, now entering a frenzied state, Sicheng started looked under every pillow, in every trash can for his notes.

“Aye you all good? Can you not find it or something?” Yuta called from the other room. 

Sicheng walked out, rubbing his temples, “Yeah, I normally know where everything is in this house, but I just can’t find it.” He pulled out his phone, dialing up Chenle, foot tapping impatiently.

“Yo, Lele, have you by chance seen my notes around the house lately?”

“No that’s hella vague, like for what class?” 

“Art History,” Sicheng answered, “also where are you right now? It’s really loud I can barely hear you.”

“Uhh, just at Hyuck’s place having a little kickback, but that’s not important, I think I saw some papers on the kitchen table yesterday or something like that, but I couldn’t begin to guess where you put them.”

“Okay thanks, I’ll look around some more. When do you think you’ll be home?”

“Mmm… like an hour, ish?” Chenle responded indecisively.

“Okay see you soon, stay safe” Sicheng said hanging up.

Sicheng audibly sighed talking to no one in particular, “I’ll just have to redo them. Lord why test me like this?” 

“Sounds like we have more work to do then,” Yuta commented, snapping Sicheng out of his thoughts, “would it be okay if we just stayed here instead of going back to the library? It’s starting to get a bit late.”

Once again, Yuta had trapped him, and Sicheng had no rational reason to say no. Giving up and offering a shrug in response, they sat down at the kitchen table, where Sicheng furiously went through his history and tried to remember all the articles and websites he got info from.  He wrote his notes on a google doc this time, instead of on paper. He had recovered about a third of his research, but a lot of it he also did on school or public computers. Then, he heard a knock on the door. Yuta started to stand up, but Sicheng beat him to it.

“I got it!” Sicheng called.  _ I guess Chenle was true to his word. _

He unlocked the door, and someone forced their way in, pushing Sicheng out of the way. 

“WHo the fUck are you?!” Sicheng yelled on impulse, stepping back. He surveyed the strange man who was visible drunk and fuming and braced himself for what was to come. 

“I’M Taeil’s brother, and YOU’RE the son of a bitch who broke his heart!” The stranger retorted grabbing Sicheng by his shirt. Suddenly, a wheezing Taeil appeared in the doorframe behind him. 

“I-I tri-ed to stop him… I didn’t think he w-would come to your house…” Taeil sputtered out tears flowing down his face. 

“SEE? THIS IS WHAT YOU’VE DONE!” The stranger yelled pointing to Taeil, then swinging at Sicheng’s face, then at his stomach and pinning him to the ground. Blows kept landing on his lithe body, with no end in sight. The first couple times, he felt the punches radiate, like an epicenter of pain. But after a little bit, he was immune, it didn’t hurt anymore. He caught a glimpse of Taeil standing, with his uninjured eye, trembling and covering his mouth in some combination of fear, panic and shock. Sicheng then felt himself starting to fade, blackness creeping into the corners of his vision, like a vignette effect on a photo. Just before he completely lost consciousness he heard footsteps and a familiar voice yell,

“HEY! WHat’s going on here?!” Then a pause,

“wait... Hansol?”   
“Yuta?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> btw if u were curious it was jisung who accidentally picked up sicheng’s notes in his rush to leave the apartment.
> 
> twit:@renjeolmii


	8. Chapter 8

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i haven’t been really paying attention to numbers on this fic but i just realized we passed 2.5k views and we’re approaching 200 kudos! Thanks so much for the continuous support!

It was only a week into the first semester of Yuta’s freshman year of college, but he was already swamped in work. He spent his days boarded up in his dorm room, painstakingly using Google Translate to translate his textbooks. His trashcan was overflowing with energy drink cans and plastic bags from the convenience store. The rest of his room was bare, a bed without sheets, no air conditioning or fans, no curtains or blinds, just copious amounts of boxes. He had no roommates, which most would find as a blessing, but it was a curse for Yuta. It meant no one to unlock the door when Yuta forgot his keys, no one to take out the trash, no one to make sure Yuta didn’t sleep for 24 hours straight, and most importantly no one to talk to. His lack of roommate just amplified Yuta’s social isolation. He didn’t know anybody, no connections and no opportunities to make any. Yes, his classes had other people in them, but he couldn’t really start talking to someone out of the blue, especially a week into classes. Not to mention the fact he barely knew Korean, so couldn’t keep a conversation anyways. It was completely isolating and a lonely existence. He was the only Japanese student at Soo Man University, so he couldn’t talk to anyone in his native language. The only good thing in his life was that he didn’t have to worry too much about tuition, as his grandparents had worked very hard to save enough money to allow Yuta to go to a good school. He had hired a Korean tutor and picked up two part-time jobs to cover the cost. The only person he ever talked to was his tutor, but she was six years his senior, and he was paying for every minute spent with her so they didn’t have time to talk about anything other than the material. Yuta didn’t have time to do anything that made him happy, and he soon fell into a depressive state. Knowing that he needed help and social interaction, he threw away the last of his pride and went to one of those support groups for kids who were struggling with adjusting to college. It was led by a popular junior looking for charitable things to improve his resume.  The other people in the group were nothing of note, just a couple socially awkward virgins who couldn’t even hold a conversation. But the leader, Hansol, instantly recognized something in Yuta and took him under his wing. Hansol would drag Yuta out on the weekends to go to parties and meet with Hansol’s friends. In the clubbing scene, Yuta could get high and forget about his problems, and he didn’t need to speak much Korean, it was his perfect escape. Yuta soon fell deeply in love with Hansol, as he was the only one who was there for him at all times. Yuta soon got absorbed into partying, spending more time tripping than being in class. He forgot about why he originally came to Korea. All that mattered to him was Hansol and clubbing. Hansol and Yuta were pretty much inseparable, Yuta didn’t really hide his affection and love for Hansol, but Hansol never would really reject it or return it. Even though Yuta was one of the closest people to him, Hansol never really fully opened up. One night, after snorting a couple lines, they hooked up in the club bathroom. Yuta was ecstatic, and they continued to hook up more and more frequently after that. But, they never would fuck sober. Or hang out during the daytime. They had never made their relationship “official official”, but Yuta thought that it had been an unspoken agreement. Just as Yuta was happy with his life and his relationship, Hansol just… disappeared. Yuta was the first to realize and he had rushed over to his house, where he found Hansol’s roommate, Ten, just sitting on the balcony in a robe, smoking a cigarette. He frantically asked Ten where Hansol was and he told him that he had gone on the run, because the police had been sniffing around a little to close, and he got paranoid that his operation would get exposed. Yuta tried to reach out countless times, but with no response or no idea where he had gone. He was devastated and was thrown into another depressive episode. Everything in his life that had been good had come crashing down. Cut to two weeks later, he got a call from a police station in Serbia. Intrigued, he picked up not expecting it to be Hansol. Hansol said that he had been caught, and he needed six million dollars, and quick. Yuta instantly denied as there was no way he could pull that together, Hansol had always been the one with money. After he said there was no way he could get six million dollars, Hansol’s mood switched instantly. He started screaming that Yuta was good for nothing, meaningless piece of trash that Hansol had only kept around because he had a tight ass. After another minute of berating insults on Yuta, he told Yuta that he was a mistake and annoyance and to never try to contact him again and then promptly hung up. Yuta was stunned and shocked, he thought that Hansol actually loved and cared about him, but he couldn't have been more wrong. This time, instead of feeling sad, he just felt incredibly empty, without purpose or direction. It was back to square one. But this time, he couldn’t drown his sorrows in drugs because Hansol had been his supplier. After a lot of time spent reflecting, he recognized his past mistakes and didn’t want to repeat them. He called his sister for the first time since he had gotten to Korea and told her everything that had happened. She was surprised, to say the least, but encouraged Yuta to revisit hobbies that he enjoyed back when he was in Japan, and to get back into focusing on school. He took that advice to heart and set out to reinvent himself. He started going to class again, attended some group therapy sessions and even joined the school’s recreational soccer team, a passion he had left behind in high school. Month by month, he got healthier. He stopped clubbing, went to therapy for substance abuse and eventually he forgot about Hansol. Well, he didn’t fully forget, but he distracted himself with school and extracurriculars so that he could repress those memories. As the years went by he built a support network of friends and had gotten clean, and even sober (mostly) and had pretty much reinvented himself completely by junior year. Life improved and he found things and people worth living for, that truly loved him and were there for him, his ride or dies.  Every since Hansol, he had vowed never to fall in love with another boy again, but that changed when he met Dong Sicheng. But this time, it was different. He wasn’t blinded by loneliness, and even though Sicheng didn’t seem to like him that much right now for some reason, Yuta could sense that Sicheng wasn’t emotionally manipulative or ingenuine like Hansol had been. Yuta had left any trappings of his former life behind, and repressed those memories well, until this moment. 

The moment he saw Hansol again, he was on top of an injured Sicheng, fist poised in the air, about to deliver another blow. 

“Hansol?” he said, stopping the assailant in his tracks. 

Hansol instantly rolled off the boy, standing up and looking Yuta in the eye, 

“Yuta?”

The stood there for a long while just staring at each other. In that time, Taeil had come to his senses and rushed over to Sicheng, trying to keep him conscious. 

Yuta was at a loss of words, he had too much to say, but couldn’t put it into sentences. Hansol was surely the last person he was expecting to see, and even though he had prepared over the past three and a half years what he would say if he ever saw Hansol again, his mind went blank. Hansol seemed to be going through similar mind crises, but he broke the silence by promptly grabbing Taeil and sprinting out of the apartment. 

It was all too familiar, but I guess Yuta was naive to think that Hansol would react in any other way. Hansol would continue running from his problems, Yuta had hoped that years later he would’ve matured past that, but he hadn’t. Yuta stood there deep in thought, but then remembered that there was a now unconscious Sicheng laying on the ground. He rushed to the boy’s side, putting two fingers to check his pulse and breathing. Luckily Sicheng wasn’t dead, but he was badly injured. It wasn’t enough to bring him to the hospital, Yuta decided, but he didn’t know what to do. He resolved that it would just be better to clean and bandage any cuts and then let Sicheng wake up on his own. He carried Sicheng over to his bed and then went to look for some sort of first aid kit. After searching the entire apartment, he found one deep in a bathroom cabinet. He returned to the bedroom and took Sicheng’s shirt off to assess the damage. 

_ I guess Hansol still wears all those goddamn rings.  _ He thought to himself, as there were quite a few cuts on Sicheng’s chest and face.  _ AND that bastard gave him a black eye.  _

He cleaned and bandaged all the cuts, and then found some pajamas haphazardly thrown on the ground, and changed Sicheng into them (don’t worry, Yuta did it in the least pervy way that he could, he isn’t that much of a creep). He then tucked Sicheng in, turned off the lights and went back out into the main living room to let Sicheng sleep. He wasn’t about to leave an unconscious boy all alone in this huge apartment, so he helped himself to one of the Yakults from the fridge and sat down on a plush couch. He looked at his phone, surprised that it was already ten past one in the morning. Seeing the time, the mental and emotional exhaustion seemed to suddenly wash over him and Yuta promptly fell asleep. 

He was awoken the sound of keys jiggling in the door, and then a visibly hungover highschool stepping inside the apartment. They made eye contact, and in unison asked,

“Who are you?”

Approaching Yuta, the high schooler started, “Well, this is my house, who the fuck are you and why are you here? How did you get in?”

“Uh, I guess Sicheng let me in? I’m a friend of his, my name is Yuta. But who are you?” 

“I’m Chenle, Sicheng’s little brother. You still didn’t tell me why you’re here at 6 am. Where’s Sicheng?” The guy replied. 

“Well long story short, this guy came and knocked him out, not exactly sure why but there was a reason. He got pretty beat up so I took care of his wounds, but he’s still out.” Yuta said reluctantly. 

“Oh what the fuck?!” Chenle said rubbing his temples and walking off to Sicheng’s room. 

Yuta decided to catch up on some One Punch Man and wait for Sicheng to wake up. Even though Chenle was here now, he still wanted some explanation from Sicheng, and to make sure he was okay.

Yuta has lost track of time, but he heard a thud and then loud swearing. 

Soon enough he saw a discombobulated Sicheng stumble out into the living room.

“WHat the fuckk…” Sicheng moaned, rubbing his head, “duddee…did you do this?” he droned, pointing to his bandages.

“Yeah, how you feeling? You got it pretty bad yesterday” Yuta responded.

“What time even is it? Goddamn, I gotta go to class, See ya around.” Sicheng said with uncharacteristic enthusiasm, reaching for his backpack, blatantly ignoring Yuta’s question, but at this point, Yuta was used to it. 

Yuta jumped up, grabbing Sicheng’s wrist. Sicheng looked at him, face frozen in confusion but maintaining eye contact. A classic mega-watt smile grew on Yuta’s face, 

“Hold up, Mr. Injured, where do you think you’re going?”

Sicheng immediately diverted his gaze,

“Come on, let go! My parents are gonna cut me off if they find out I’m skipping class,” he added, pouting like a little kid throwing a tantrum. This overwhelming display of cuteness only made Yuta smile wider.

“I know you just want to avoid me, no one is that eager to go to class, especially when you have a perfectly good excuse to skip.”

Sicheng sighed in defeat, and dropped his backpack on the ground,

“Okay you’ve got me, I skip school all the time. I always tell my parents that I got sick, and now they’re convinced that I have a horrible immune system or something like that. They’re always sending me herbal medicine from China.” 

Yuta laughed, “Back in highschool I would always try to pull that kinda shit, but my mom always saw through my bullshit, she would probably still try to make me go to school even if I was buried 10 feet underground.” 

“Tough shit dude… okay but why are you even still here? It’s like 9 am.” 

“I wasn’t about to just leave without knowing you hadn’t died in your sleep or something, I also wanted some explanation as to why that whole thing happened.”

Sicheng sighed, pressing his lips together, 

“I guess you deserve some context,” he took a deep breath before he started, “You know a couple days ago when we were at that cafe and the barista was Taeil, the guy who likes me,  and two days ago I met up with him and told him that I didn’t reciprocate. I thought that he took it pretty well, but as you can see from all of my bruises that that was not the case. So, I guess he told his other brother and he’s the guy who beat me up yesterday.”

“Wait Hansol is Taeil’s older brother?” Yuta asked, surprised

“Yeah, I think that’s his name… do you know him or something?” Sicheng replied

“Uhh,” Yuta started, debating whether or not to tell the truth, “yeah I had a couple classes with him last year. He just didn’t seem like the type to you know… beat up someone.” 

Sicheng nodded in understanding. 

“Hey so, I now that I know you’re not dead I should probably go, but it’ll take like 50 minutes for Jae to come pick me up, so is it cool with you if I stay around here until he comes?” 

“Okay,” Sicheng said reluctantly, “does it really take 50 minutes though to get all the way over here though? That’s gotta be rough.”

“No, no, no, it’s like a 15 minute drive or so, but I know Jae had Taeyong over yesterday to “study” and it’s gonna take a while for him to get cleaned up and out the door.”

“Oh,” Sicheng said, looking like he regretting even asking that. “So, do you wanna watch something while we wait?” Sicheng added, directing his attention to the massive 82 inch tv.  _ Damn, it’s even one of those curved ones. _

“Okay sure!” Yuta jumped onto the plush couch, sinking into the cushions. 

“Uhh… I was watching Free, are you okay with anime?” Sicheng asked, eyes glued to the tv, animatedly pressing buttons on the remote. 

“Sounds good, I’m always down to watch some half naked wet anime dudes.” 

Sicheng decided not to react to that comment and just clicked “resume episode”.

Yuta and Sicheng sat there in silence, feeling comfortable just with Sicheng’s presence. He couldn’t quite tell if Sicheng found it awkward or not, but Yuta felt content in this moment and he wanted it to last forever. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> okay finally pumped this one out! i wasn't gonna have yusol involved in drugs, but i was watching this vice thing abt a girl who lived in a like mdma dungeon or smthg like that so i got inspired, school has started for me so its been harder to find time to write, but this story still has at least one more little bump in the road before the climax... im also gonna try to restore some of the cracky group chat parts since ive been focusing on the plot a little too much lately >.<
> 
> twit: @renjeolmii


	9. Chapter 9

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wasn't actually gonna upload this early, but cranked this chapter out pretty quick. a bit of a more cracky chapter for yall but events in it will come into play later watch out for some markhyuck development next chapter

Tuesday 10:45

 

**iMessage- 6:37**

**_Nakamoto Yuta:_ ** how you healing?

 

Even though it seemed like just a normal text, Sicheng did not have the energy to deal with Yuta today. Or really any day.  He had taken the day off school but that didn't mean he felt any less shitty. He woke up with a pounding headache, even though he guzzled painkillers the night before. He sat up abruptly, blood rushing to his head. Then, after tripping over a pile of manga next to his bed, he made his way to the bathroom. Dramatically flinging open the medicine cabinet, Sicheng searched for something to ease his pain. He opened up the aspirin to find it was filled with a mixture of tic tacs and fish oil pills.  _ What the actual fuck. What’s Chenle doing on the weekends to warrant something like this?  _ He found a small bottle of ibuprofen that looked like it was from 2004 in the back of the cabinet and when he popped it open he was greeted by a bottle full of lentils and pinto beans.  _ WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK DO ANY OF THESE BOTTLES HAVE REAL MEDICINE?!  _ After he found a bottle of melatonin filled with dried up orbeez and a bottle of nyquil filled with mango chutney, he decided to give up on the idea that any of these bottles would have real medicine in them. He would definitely have to have a talk with Chenle. He threw on some sweats and a ball cap, then shoved his airpods in his ears and threw his hood up, and set out to go to 7/11. It was a brisk morning, but luckily it was only a short 5 minute walk to his destination. The bell on the door sang a little jingle as he walked in, and he beelined to the medicine aisle and started tossing bottles into his basket. Once he was equipped with a plethora of drugs, he made his way over to the snacks aisle and picked up two cup ramens, a roll of mentos, a green tea and a Calpis. Before leaving though he ducked over to the beauty aisle and used on the most expensive lip balm’s tester. He finally walked up to the cashier who was sitting on the counter facetiming someone. Sicheng loudly cleared his throat, and the cashier jumped back behind the counter, keeping her head down and started scanning the items immediately. She paused for a second looking at the 9 medicine bottles in the basket and then up at Sicheng, giving him a weird look.  _ Oh right, I forgot I have a black eye and a split lip.  _ Sicheng mumbled a half-assed “thanks” on his way out and started on his way back home. He pulled out his phone and started drafting a text.

**best bitch kun <3**

 

**_sicheng:_ ** come to my house asap and bring weed

**_kun:_ ** do u have my green tea

**_sicheng:_ ** you know it

**_kun:_ ** the japanese one?

**_sicheng:_ ** duh of course

**_kun:_ ** k be there in 10

 

He dumped the goods on the coffee table and flopped down onto the couch. Reaching over, he fished his roll of mentos out of the plastic bag. Unwrapping it, he popped one into his mouth, and subsequently a handful of aspirin. A loud choking sound escaped his mouth, as he forgot that you can’t really eat laying down. 

“Alexa, play Despacito.” Sicheng called

“Okay. Playing Despacito by Luis Fonsi featuring Daddy Yankee.”

As the soft acoustic melody started playing Sicheng just felt at peace, listening to this song always makes him feel closer to god, it was truly an elevating experience. 

He was awakened out of his moment of serenity when he heard the door unlocking. 

“Why are you listening to this. It’s sooo outdated.” Kun commented, walking over to Sicheng who was still laying in the same position on the couch. 

“The lyrics are just so deep and meaningful and the melody and harmony are so artfully blended, it transcends time, like are you deaf?”

“Okay besides the point, I brought the goods.” Kun replied.

“Don’t say it like that, it makes it sound shady.”

“Yeah but it is shady it’s like hella illegal here in Korea.”

“Touche.” Sicheng said, accepting defeat. He, with much effort, leaned over and got the remote, clicking on the latest Chinese drama that he and Kun were into these days, Meteor Garden. Kun lit the first blunt, blowing smoke in Sicheng’s face and passing it. He took a deep inhale and instantly felt more relaxed on the exhale. He wasn’t keeping track of time, but soon enough the room was filled with the smell of weed and they were yelling at the TV about how dumb Daoming Si is and how she should just kiss Shancai already. In one of the slow parts of the episode, he decided to pull his phone out and air his opinions to the group chat.

  
  


**_Winwin:_ ** Wo  shi xihuan ni like that s what the daopmin g si from j meteor guardan s garden said to dong shancai but like y tbh vf fuck thar that hetero b ullshit liked like xu ximen us way hootter who fujcki ng cares abt shancau and si

**_Haechan:_ ** wtf this is kORea man dont foreget

**_Winwin:_ ** Japanedxsed is kewk, kelw but kinda hard lowkey chinesde is so eyasty eas6y 

**_Octoprince:_ ** oh thats good to know (?) im actually from japan

**_Winwin:_ ** oah realilyl ? thisx kid i knewoi is alsao from japsan hedsws kinda as diix ckthougbyh

**_Winwin:_ ** Alos i actually idk what  i was gonnna sy sday6 say yo i didnt evn right day6 on purposed it jusr cazme ou t like that 

**_Octoprince:_ ** what’s his name? I probably know him

**_Winwin:_ ** i remembwer wshat i wsa gfonna say I jjuart juszt love exo and especiallly exo wokwmm li9ke bring em back lugh i love lhuhan luhan.

**_Haechan:_ ** amen honey! exols forever, whos ur bias? I would say imma pretty hard chanyeol stan like dAddy

**_Teewhytrack:_ ** hey don’t say the d word

**_Haechan:_ ** fuck u grandpa i can do and say whatever i want and he rly is tho in the truest sense of the word

**_Winwin:_ ** calskm ure jettttttttts twhhhhhhytruurackkm Yo u kno whwen ur o high and yoiu just likr4 xcant6 open ur ehyes itd dsooo fun yall alsio i sarangw suho opppa chincnha much desuuuuuu

**_Teewhytrack:_ ** oof we have a koreaboo on our hands

**_Octoprince:_ ** yea remind me to never get high with winwin

**_Winwin:_ ** Ehoop \s just spille dc my dri nl drink omn mtselfc lmao LAMAO the y amount of  typos here is unreszal i just sxee a bunt of red sqigglesx 

**_Winwin:_ ** Urf welcome for thev content butb like i,m actiallllly fucked up now h yoooooou kn9e knwni know like i cant sw

**_Winwin:_ ** oo see or waalk  likke t is thus this what hellen keller had to go throught like thatb s p sad it kin da sucks she waas lk like drunk all., her lud life t like that sux ass all h love to helen  tho she was a brave woman she woul d probably br pretyh cool to chill with and smoke a blunt like would helkel smoke kusb idk i hope she woul\\\

\

**_teewhytrack:_ ** actually, what?

**_Haechan:_ ** can i get some of whatever he’s smoking

**_Winwin:_ ** yeahuj sure kun breought it ore whatver tyhgewytr theresw xtraiddkk rly knnnwo what it isz buyut coome ovewr youoooooooooor chilll 

**_Haechan:_ ** wait actually

**_Winwin:_ ** yeahj bitchd ! also we canb sssse what we lllllllllleewk lloeilkl in irlsz@!

**_Teewhytrack:_ ** yo don’t do it channie like we know each other but this man is clearly under the influence and going to someone’s house to meet them isn’t a good idea

**_Winwin:_ ** apt 369, 7230 myojiyong street

**_Teewhytrack:_ ** if you guys wanna meet up then how about you set a time tomorrow at a cafe on the campus. You know with plenty of people around and in broad daylight

**_Haechan:_ ** lmao idc if i get kidnapped as jake paul says yolo swag!

  
  


Sicheng promptly threw his phone across onto an adjacent chair, but it bounced off and slammed onto the ground. 

_ Welp that’s why I have Apple Care and an Otterbox. _

“Yo kuunnnie my fwiend haechannie is gonna come over and smoke with us.”

“Okay whatever, a friend of yours is a friend of mine.” Kun replied passively swiping through Tinder. 

“Aye I thought you had a girl already?” Sicheng asked, nearly falling off the couch.

“Oh yeah I forgot lmao.”

“Did you just say ‘lmao’ out loud?”

“Says the guy who was listening to Despacito earlier.”

They both went back to their respective activities, Kun text chatting random people on Omegle and Sicheng zoning out to the droning of the drama that was playing.

After some unknown amount of time had passed, he heard someone meekly knocking on the door.

Sicheng stumbled over to the door, grabbing onto the coat rack for support and nearly knocking it over, and then flung the door open dramatically. 

He looked down slightly to see a kid with light brown hair, nervously playing with the frays on his jeans. 

Turning around, Sicheng yelled into the apartment.

“Aiyah, Kun the delivery guy forgot our food!”

“Sicheng, we didn’t order any food. He must be your friend you invited over.” Kun replied, clearly done with Sicheng’s shit at this point. 

“oOH Channie! It’s so nice to meet you in person you’re chincha ke ai!” Sicheng slurred turning to face the boy and proceeded to pet his soft hair. 

“Jesus Christ, you do it in real life too.” Haechan retorted, wincing to the sudden barrage of affection from Sicheng.

“Come on in!” Sicheng said, closing the door behind Haechan. 

“So, I’m presuming you’re Winwin?” he inquired.

“Yeppers!” Sicheng replied brightly, lighting up a blunt for Haechan.

Haechan inhaled deeply, then exhaling with a shudder. “And, who are you?” he asked, directing his attention towards Kun.

“His name’s Kun and he’s my bff 4 evas! He’s kinda moody especially when he’s high, so it’s not personal if he looks at you like he wants to slit your throat. Oh look he’s doing it right now” Sicheng perked up. 

“God haven’t you fuckers ever heard of peace and quiet? I’m drafting a reply to Jake Paul’s latest tweet.” Kun snapped.

Haechan looked at SIcheng in slight confusion, and Sicheng just shrugged in response. 

Since Kun wasn’t paying attention the two of them (not so) sneakily changed the TV to EXO fancams. They spent an indiscernible amount of time saying wildly inappropriate things about idols and as they smoked more and more, Haechan gradually cuddled Sicheng more and more until he was clinging onto Sicheng like a koala incarnate. Even through his foggy, drugged up mind, he could tell that Haechan was a genuinely good kid, probably his new favorite (sorry Renjun).

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> why does this fucker keep inviting ppl over to his house
> 
> twit:@renjeolmii


	10. Chapter 10

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> regular-irregular is soo good! my favs are no longer, fly away with me, and regular eng. version. my physical album is arriving in two days, and im overall just so proud of them, all of them worked so hard on this album <3

Donghyuck sat down, observing his surroundings. The chair underneath him was plush, with ornate gold armrests. In front of him was a giant long table, with what seemed like hundreds of place settings. The ceilings were high and arched, with a giant metal chandelier hanging off one of the rafters. The air was unbearably hot, but Donghyuck was already wearing a t-shirt and basketball shorts. Squinting, he tried to make out the figure at the opposite head of the table, He could barely make out any features of the person, but he could tell it was a human. 

_ Damn I should’ve brought my glasses. _

Suddenly he felt his phone vibrate in his pocket and the upbeat melody of SNSD’s Holiday reverberate through the hall. 

_ Kkkhch I mean I love this song but I should really not have it be my ringtone, it’s kinda embarrassing. _

He pulled his phone out of his pocket to see it was a facetime from Mark.

_ Why would Mark be facetiming me? Wait how does he even have my number? _

Despite his confusion, he clicked accept anyways.

“Hi Donghyuck,” Mark said in a weirdly monotone voice. 

“Hi?” Hyuck replied uneasily. He studied the background of where Mark was, it looked very similar to Donghyuck’s surroundings. 

“Aye u up?” Mark asked, his voice reverberating. 

_ Yoooo, wait the guy at the other end of the table is Mark? _

Donghyuck put his phone down on the table and yelled out, waving to him

“Why are you here Mark?”

He heard no response, Mark wasn’t even moving. There was complete silence, and then music started playing from seemingly nowhere.

“Chew-chew-chew-chew chewing gum Chew-chew-chew-chew Chew-chew-chew-chew-chew” The vocals crescendoed. Suddenly, everything around him slowly started turning pink and melting. The chair he was sitting started sinking, sticking to his arms in legs. He started screaming for help, panicking. 

All of a sudden, it stopped. 

He opened his eyes and sat up, looking around at his surroundings, disoriented. He felt warmth against his side and looked down to see a boy curled up against his hip.

_ What the fuck? Who the fuck? Where the fuck? _

As soon as he thought that, the memories of the night before started rushing back. He was at Winwin’s apartment, and the boy next to him was the said owner. He came over and got high on who knows what, but it had been an enjoyable time. 

He slid out of Winwin’s grip, careful not to wake him up. He started to look for his phone, which he eventually found under the couch on a plate with the remnants of a funfetti cake and ashes on it. 

He wiped the ashes off and started scrolling through his notifications. 

 

_ 09:12 _

_ Nana: where are u im here to pick u up  _

_ 09:13 _

_ Nana: okay idc bitch im not waiting for u _

 

Donghyuck looked at the time, it was 9:49 already and he had theater class at 10.  _ Now that I’ve lost my ride, I should probably ask Winwin to drive me. _

Hyuck approached the sleeping boy cautiously, gently tapping Winwin on his shoulder. “Hey honey, could you drive me to class? I gotta be there soon” Donghyuck said softly.

Winwin groaned and shifted his position, “go ask kun-ge he’ll drive you”.

Hyuck nodded and went go find Kun, who happened to be passed out in the bathtub.

“Umm Kun? Can you drive me to class real quick?” He inquired

Kun sighed sitting up, “Go ask Sichengie to drive you”.

“I already asked him and he said I should ask you instead”

Kun scratched his head, mumbling something in Chinese, “that fucker. Whatever, where do you need to go”

“Theater 4A.”

“Okay lemme get my keys,” Kun said sounding very done and defeated.

 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

 

Kun dropped him off outside the theater, and Donghyuck jogged to the door. He knew he was late when he didn’t see the kids who would normally vape outside before in between classes. With much effort, he pushed the heavy door open to see that his theater teacher wasn’t anywhere to be found. 

He looked at his watch for the time (which he could barely see because both of his wrists were so iced up) noticing that it had already been 7 minutes since class started. Students were still milling about, so Donghyuck deducted that they had a sub. Smiling to himself, he dumped his stuff on a random chair and went to go find his friends. He spotted Jisung, Chenle and Renjun talking to some upper classmen and bounced over to greet them. 

“Hellolollo guys!” Hyuck sang, putting his arm around Jisung, pulling him into a chokehold. 

Jisung didn’t say anything, just kind of shrugged off his arm, sighing. 

Ten, the only one out of the three upper classmen he recognized, commented, scanning Donghyuck up and down and pressing his lips together, “Wow, you look like the night before.”

“You’re one to talk. I saw the pics you sent Johnny.” he snapped. In actuality, it was an outright lie, he just made an educated guess that Ten was the type to send nudes, and unlike the rest of the student population, Hyuck had picked up on that gay JohnTen shit right away.

Due to Ten’s shocked and then sulky expression, Donghyuck had guessed well.

“anyways,” Renjun interrupted, “Ten and Jungwoo were just introducing us to the new student. Yangyang, was it?” The said boy nodded in confirmation. 

“Nice to meet you, the name’s Donghyuck but you can call me Hyuck for short.” 

“Cool, nice to meet you too,” he responded in a heavy mixed accent.

“Where you from?” Hyuck inquired. Yangyang looked slightly taken aback by the straightforwardness but responded, “Uh, I was born in Taiwan, but then I moved to Germany and lived there up to two years ago. I went to college back in China for a year briefly but then transferred to Soo Man University just a couple days ago.” 

“Oh cool, cool. I’ve always wanted to go to Germany, I’ve heard the food is really good.” 

“and the guys are supposed to be hot also” Jisung mumbled, snickering to Chenle. Donghyuck just rolled his eyes, and Renjun slapped Jisung on the shoulder with a disapproving look. 

“whatever,” Ten said, “so tell me Hyuckie, what juicy stuff did you get into last night? Like, have you seen yourself?” 

Donghyuck whipped out a mirror compact from his back pocket, he had large bags under his eyes, his hair was messy, the Thrasher shirt he was wearing had some nondescript stain on the front, and his Nike Air Maxes were untied. As someone who prided themselves for their looks, he did look like trash. 

Sighing and clicking the compact closed with a flourish, “uh you know,” he started, glancing uneasily towards an innocent looking Yangyang and Jungguk (or was it Jungwoo?)

“Just smoked with some friends.”

“Was it some friends or ‘friends’.”

“What does that mean.”   
“You know what it means Hyuckie.” Ten replied, pushing his tongue through the side of his cheek a couple times for added effect.

Donghyuck scowled, “ew no. they were just friends.”

“Oh, there were more than one? I never thought THE Lee Donghyuck would be into that kind of shit but here we are.” Ten smirked.

Just as Donghyuck was coming up with the perfect comeback, the sub called the class to their seats.

“Ugh, whatever you say. It was nice meeting you Yangyang” Hyuck said, before jogging over to sit next to Mark.

He rolled into the chair, limbs limp. “Ugh Mark, you don’t understand my life is such a struggle every day” Donghyuck stated dramatically.

“Good Morning to you too Donghyuck.” Mark responded void of emotion. 

The sub started calling names for attendance, but barely anyone was paying attention. 

“Hyuck?” Mark asked uneasily, keeping his body facing front, “are you free after class?” 

Donghyuck turned to face Mark, while the latter still avoided eye contact,

“Uh yeah, why?”

“ummmm I was wondering if you would wanna get pho with me?” 

Hyuck smiled, “Sure sounds good! I’ve been craving pho anyways.”

Mark slumped down, sighing relief. 

 

———————————————-

 

The rest of class had been excruciatingly boring as they had to watch a 2 hour movie on colour theory (which doesn’t really have anything to do with theatre?) but at least he had pho to look forward too. Donghyuck still wasn’t sure how he felt about Mark. His group chat had said to just be blunt with someone if you didn’t reciprocate feelings, but Hyuck wasn’t exactly sure he didn’t reciprocate. He had never really thought about Mark in a romantic way before he lowkey “confessed” in the group chat, but he had been toying with the idea ever since. Donghyuck was probably blinded by loneliness, he didn’t want to ruin his chances with any member of the male species. Guys just weren’t into Donghyuck. He didn’t know if he was too annoying or too talkative or what it was, but he was always the single one giving relationship advice to his friends. He settled to give Mark a chance, they were just getting lunch. It was just a lunch. Speaking of lunch, the teacher had dismissed them just in the middle of Donghyuck’s thought. How rude.

“Are you ready to go?” a familiar voice broke him out of his trance.

“oh yeah, just a second,” Donghyuck said stuffing his jacket into his bag and slinging it over his shoulder. 

Hyuck barreled down the stairs, Mark following en suite. 

“So, how was your weekend?” Donghyuck inquired.

“Pretty standard, I had two soccer games and hung out at Johnny’s for a bit on Sunday.”

“Cool, cool,”

“How about you Donghyuck?”

“Mmm, Professor Choi’s essay killed me, so I mainly worked on that, but Jaemin, Chenle went out for brunch Sunday and I spent last night at my friend’s house.” Donghyuck replied, watching Mark in his peripherals for a reaction. 

Sure enough, Mark bit his lip, looking at the ground. 

_ Goddamn, could he be easier to read? _

“Oh really, is that why you look kinda jacked today?”

“Yea it was kind of a last minute thing. We had a  _ lot  _ of fun though.” Hyuck couldn’t help but let a small smirk grace his lips.

Mark nodded in acknowledgement but was about to walk into a pole. Hyuck quicked pulled Mark aside, 

“Woah there buddy, better watch where you’re walking.” 

They walked in a mutual silence for a bit, observing the scenery. Once they finally arrived at the restaurant, he promptly saw two familiar figures walk out the door. 

“Sicheng! Doyoung! What are you doing here?” Donghyuck called out.

“Ah Haechan, nice to see you got to class okay, we were just having a quick lunch before going to Econ.” Sicheng greeted.

Doyoung looked slightly puzzled, but responded, “Yeah Hyuck, long time no see, we should catch up over coffee sometime.”

“That would be great! Hey, we’re probably gonna go though since we wanna get a table, but text me okay? Both of you!” Donghyuck said cheerily, waving goodbye.

“That was nice running into them, Doyoung and I used to be pretty close, he tutored me in highschool but we’ve just kinda drifted apart” Hyuck commented, pushing open the door. The delicious smell of pho wafted into his nose as he entered, but when he didn’t hear Mark didn’t make an audible response, he turned to look at Mark.

Mark appeared to be deep in thought, Hyuck could see the gears turning in his mind. 

“You good?” Hyuck asked, snapping Mark out of his trance.

“Oh, uh yeah”

“Table for two please.” Donghyuck said sweetly. The hostess then guided them to a small booth in the back of the restaurant. 

“Hmm.” Hyuck said picking up the small laminated sheet that was the menu, “I think I’m feeling like tripe today.” 

Mark continued staring blankly at the wall, unresponsive. 

“Helllo?” Donghyuck asked, waving his hand in front of Mark’s face, “If I wanted to go out to lunch with a rock I would’ve asked Jeno to borrow one, he has a collection.”

Mark slowly moved to look at Donghyuck, 

“so, Haechan’s your nickname?”

“I mean, I guess. I’m not super sure why Sichengie calls me that.” Hyuck responded, a small little inkling of thought pulling at the edge of his mind. 

Mark nodded uneasily, finally picking up the menu. 

“I’ll have fishball, anything else?”

“I know you hate them but,” Hyuck started

“No.” Mark interrupted.

“You didn’t even let me finish!”

“I already know what you were gonna say.”

“Pffft, as I was saying though, can we get chinese doughnuts?”

“Still no.”

“Pleeeeaaase!” Donghyuck whined, grabbing one of Mark’s hands. 

“No. It’s for your own good, they’re so unhealthy!” Mark retorted.

Donghyuck, grabbing both of Mark’s hands now, looked him in the face and tried again. Lee Donghyuck was not a quitter.

“Pleeaase Minhyungie” Hyuck said knowing that the only person who called him Minhyung was his mom, and Mark would crack.

“Okay okay,” Mark reluctantly said, pulling his hands out of Donghyuck’s grip. 

Mark flagged the waitress down, ordering their pho (and Donghyuck’s chinese doughnuts). 

They made idle chatter while waiting for their food, but their faces instantly lit up when they saw the waitress coming around the corner holding two steaming hot bowls of soup. 

They dug right in, eating ravenously, not exchanging any words. Donghyuck wandered through the inner abyss that was his mind, reflecting on the recent events of the past couple of minutes. That little inkling of a thought from before soon became a full blown epiphany. Haechan was his name on twitter, and by association, his group chat. That Mark has started. And Sicheng has called him Haechan because he never actually told him his real name. In front of Mark. And Mark had connected the dots.

At that realisation, Donghyuck choked loudly on the noodles he had been shoveling into his mouth, subsequently having a coughing fit.

Mark looked up worriedly, “Hey, hey! Are you okay? Just go down the wrong pipe?”

Donghyuck wiped his mouth, eyes slightly watering, 

“yeah I’m good” he responded avoiding Mark’s concerned gaze.

 

_ Lee Donghyuck, what kind of clusterfuck have you gotten yourself into this time? _

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> idk i just kinda set up yangyang in there, i dont really have any ideas of how imma incorperate him, so if you have any suggestions be sure to leave them down below!
> 
> twit: @renjeolmii


	11. Chapter 11

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just in case u didnt know the phrase “do you want to eat ramen and go” or inviting someone over for ramen is kinda like the korean equivalent of netflix and chill

_ God, what a bore.  _ Yuta thought, staring blankly at his bright computer screen. Head resting in his hand, he sat at the kitchen table with various papers next to him.

He was trying very hard not to just slam his laptop shut and go play PubG with Jeno, but he had to keep his grades up, as his parent’s and sister were working their asses off for Yuta to go to school in Korea. So he sat there, watching the little blinking bar that shows where you had stopped typing. But then he heard someone walk up behind him, Yuta spun around on his stool, hoping the approaching person would provide a good excuse for Yuta to do something else. 

“Hey Yuta,” Jaehyun said a bit surprised that Yuta was already at attention, even before he spoke. 

“Hey bro what’s up!” Yuta said a little too enthusiastically

“Um, I just wanted to ask if you wanted to get food with Jeno and I,” Jaehyun replied, gesturing to Jeno who was standing behind him.

“Glad you asked, I wasn’t doing anything productive anyways, let me just get my wallet and keys and we can go.” Yuta trotted off to find said items. 

The three exited the apartment building, setting off to a nearby mall. 

“So, Taeyong and I hung out yesterday…” Jaehyun started, breaking the silence.

“Wait, really? What did you guys do? Did you bribe him to hang out with you?” Yuta replied.

“Yeah, there’s no way he would willingly be in your presence.” Jeno chimed in snickering.

“Okay, first of all, I did not bribe him, that was only one time! Secondly, we just went to the library.”

“So you just studied by yourself, but sitting next to him.” Jeno stated bluntly.

“Pssht,” Jaehyun looked flustered, “I mean I asked him to borrow his phone charger.”

“God, why don’t you just invite him to one of your swim team parties or whatever. Like you’re so confident normally, but when it comes to Taeyong you act like you have spent your entire life in a bunker and have never spoken to another human.” Yuta lamented, pushing open the door to the mall. 

“Ok, I am NOT inviting him to our swim team parties, because we get hella crazy and fucked up and he’s a pure child and I don’t want to taint him with my bad influence.”

“I’m feeling like Italian, what do you think?” Jeno said abruptly changing the subject.

“That sounds good, but I don’t think there’s any Italian restaurants around here…” Yuta said.

“Well... there’s Papa John’s…” Jeno said reluctantly.

“BETTER INGREDIENTS, BETTER PIZZA, PAPA JOHNS!!!” Jaehyun yelled instinctually, earning some weird looks from the other mall goers, “I mean, that sounds good let’s go.”

The trio made their way to the restaurant, Yuta and Jeno wallowing in secondhand-embarrassment.

After a short walk, they arrived, placing their order and taking a seat in a musty booth. 

“So, Jeno, how’s life been recently? Any tea to spill?” Yuta smugly asked, leaning in.

“Pretty average I guess, I had dinner with my sister yesterday, and the day before I went over to Jaemin’s, and we ate ramen together if you know what I mean.” Jeno rambled. “Aiyah, you and Jaemin actually like each other, why are you still friends with benefits? You should just ask him out!” Yuta complained.

“I was actually gonna ask him if he wanted to go to the carnival this weekend.” 

“Ah, good, Jaehyunnie take notes.” Yuta said, leaning back satisfied. Jaehyun just rolled his eyes. Promptly after, a scrawny boy precariously holding two pizzas came to their table, “Here you go, a meat lover’s and an eggplant pizza,” he said placing them on the table. 

The trio began to dig in, eating in silence. Until the silence was broken by Yuta’s Death Note opening ringtone. “Ah let me take this, it’s my mom” Yuta said excusing himself and going outside. 

“Moshi moshi?” Yuta greeted

“Hi, this is Mom,”

“Ah, how are you?”

“I’m good, how are your studies going?” Her voice wavered, making Yuta instantly concerned

“Um pretty good Mom, I got a 97 on my Calculus midterms, and my soccer team got into the regional championship.” 

“Ah that’s good to hear, your brother’s robotics team was on the news, and your sister just got promoted to regional manager.”

“Oh, tell them both that I’m very proud of them, I’m glad that all of the overtime sis was going finally paid off.”

“I will, but that’s not the real reason I called you today,” she said her voice becoming serious. 

“I wanted to tell you that...” she sniffed.

“Mom are you okay?” Yuta asked, very worried at this point.

“I’m fine, it’s just that… your father and I are getting a divorce.” She choked out, fully sobbing now.

Yuta bit his lip looking down at his feet, unsure of what to say.

“May I ask why?” Yuta said quietly, trying to keep his voice stable.

She took an unstable breath, her sobs becoming more erratic, “I caught him having sex with his male personal assistant.” She wailed.

Luckily Yuta was in such shock, he did not cry, but he couldn’t form words. His mind started racing with thoughts, but unable to vocalize any of them.

After an indiscernible amount of time, he was finally able to reply with a meek, 

“Okay.”

He clicked off his phone slumping down to the ground. He sat there for a while, processing the recent events. After a while, he realized that he should probably bid Jeno and Jaehyun goodbye. Slowly, he stood back up and pushed open the door to Papa John’s, drained of energy. He made his way over to their table, leaning over Jeno to get his jacket.

“Hey what took you so long?” Jeno said playfully, before recognizing Yuta’s solemn presentation. 

“Wait are you okay dude? Did something happen?” Jaehyun said concerned.

Yuta ignored both of their questions, just grabbing his jacket and mustering up a half-assed “I gotta go see you later,” and walking out of the restaurant.

He walked out of the mall, to the sidewalk. He pulled out his phone and ordered an Uber, not feeling like walking. 

Soon enough a light grey Honda Accord pulled up to the curb, blinking its hazards as a signal for Yuta to get in. He silently got into the backseat, letting his stuff tumble onto the floor of the car. 

“Hello, my name is Xiao Dejun and I’ll be your driver, there’s water in the backseat pocket that you’re welcome to take. Would you like the aux cord?” The driver greeted cheerily.

“no thanks.”

“So, what brings you to this part of town?” Xiaojun asked

“I live here”

“Oh, you look pretty young, are you a college student?”

“yeah.” Yuta replied hoping to send the message that he wasn’t in the mood for small talk.

Unfortunately, Xiaojun didn’t get the message, “Oh, I’m in college also! Which one?”

“smu.”

“Oh me too, that’s so cool! I just transferred, what are you majoring in?”

“mechanical engineering.”

“Ah, I’m a pharmacy major, but I always thought engineering was really interesting.”

_ I didn’t ask but okay. _

“Are you involved in any extracurriculars? I’m not sure which ones are good.”

“I’m on the soccer team.”

“That sounds fun! I used to play in highschool, but I’ve been too caught up in school to play recently. I don’t really know anyone at school yet so joining a sport would probably be good for me. Is the team still accepting new members?”

“not really, you would have to talk to the coach or something.”

_ We’re at capacity, you would have to be Cristiano Ronaldo to convince Coach to let you in. _

“Ah, that’s too bad. We’re here, but I didn’t catch your name,” Xiaojun said, pulling up in front of Yuta’s apartment complex.

“it’s yuta.”

“Well it was nice to meet you Yuta! Hope to see you around campus!” 

Yuta grabbed his jacket and exited the vehicle, trudging to his apartment. He shuffled around his pockets for his keys and entered his apartment, bee-lining for his room. He dived face first onto his bed, pulling the covers over his head. He still had his shoes on, but at this point, he didn't care. He laid there, praying for sleep to come so he wouldn’t have to think anymore. He didn’t know what to think, he was so shocked that his dad would do such a thing. He had sensed some tension in his parent’s relationship before, but he never thought it had been this forgone for his dad to go out and cheat.  One thought dominated his mind though, his mom could never figure out that Yuta was bisexual. He had known that his mother already wasn’t very sympathetic to the LGBT community, but now that her husband of 25 years had cheated on her with another man, Yuta was certain that her dislike for the community had turned to outright hate, somewhat rightfully so. 

Previously, if she had found out, she would’ve probably stopped talking to Yuta for a year or so, but she would eventually come to terms with it. Now, Yuta would most definitely be disowned. 

After much more reflection and thought, Yuta fell into a dreamless sleep.

  
  


**Notes for the Chapter:**

> jisung was the waiter at papa johns if u were wondering
> 
>  
> 
> also ive written the next chapter already so the next update will be more prompt  
> twit: @renjeolmii


	12. Chapter 12

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> um since when do i update quick

Yuta woke up to his phone rapidly buzzing in his pocket. He took it out inspecting his notifications. 

Most of them were from Jeno and Jaehyun, asking if he was okay, with one or two from Jungwoo asking the same. He and Jungwoo weren’t that close but Jungwoo was a calming presence and Jaehyun probably asked him to talk to Yuta. He didn’t feel like responding, he really just wanted a distraction from his life. 

Yuta was known for not taking bad news well and often would do anything to avoid his problems. As much as he wanted to get blackout drunk, he remembered that his substance abuse counselor had said to confide in someone anonymously, instead of using drugs to forget. 

Yuta weighed his options, and decided that he really did not feel like vomiting six times tomorrow so he chose to talk to someone. He couldn’t bring himself to talk to Jeno, Jaehyun or even Jungwoo, so he decided to text his group chat. Just now as he was opening his phone, did he realize that it was 3:45 in the morning. 

_ Hopefully someone will still be up. _

 

**_octoprince:_ ** is anyone up and free to dm? I need to talk to someone

 

He went to YouTube, to watch something dumb and funny to distract him, but before he could choose a video to watch, he received a message.

 

**Direct Message Request from winwin**

 

**_winwin:_ ** you said you needed someone to talk to? Im all ears

 

**[Accept] or [Deny]**

 

**_octoprince accepted the message request_ **

 

**_octoprince:_ ** yea thanks, i just need to talk to someone who doesn’t know me irl

**_winwin:_ ** its np! go off

**_octoprince:_ ** so i got a call from my mom saying that she and my dad were getting a divorce

**_winwin:_ ** omg that’s tough shit, are u ok?

**_octoprince:_ ** i mean tbh no, but as i was saying, i was rly suprised bc i always thought their relationship was pretty good, but then she told me it was bc my dad cheated on her w his male pa which extra caught me off guard 

**_winwin:_ ** wow, i honestly dont know what to say

**_octoprince:_ ** yea me neither, i was just so shocked and i still am

**_octoprince:_ ** BUT THATS NOT THE WORST OF IT

**_winwin:_ ** really?!

**_octoprince:_ ** so im bi, and before my mom was already kinda homophobic and shit, and luckily she doesnt know, but now if she finds out shes gonna fucking flip out and disown me 

**_winwin:_ ** wow that’s really rough, im gay and my parents are also homophobic, but luckily they live in another country and barely see me so i doubt they would ever find out 

**_winwin:_ ** sry im not really good at comforting ppl

**_octoprince:_ ** no its okay i already feel better just venting

**_winwin:_ ** do u have a boyfriend or smth?

**_octoprince:_ ** no and i think this is the first time ive ever been glad not to have one

**_octoprince:_ ** but im out to my older sis cuz she found my private twitter where i had been tweeting abt this cute guy in my art history class hopefully she doesnt out me accidentally

**_winwin:_ ** yea hopefully not, luckily my lil bro and i are both raging homosexuals so if he outs me im dragging him down w me

**_octoprince:_ ** lol

**_winwin:_ ** wait who do u have for art history

**_octoprince:_ ** professor kim, why?

**_winwin:_ ** bRO i have him also! Whos the cute guy i probably know him, spill sis

**_octoprince:_ ** woah what a coincidence! his name is sicheng btw

**_winwin:_ ** hmm actually,, i do know him we go way back but havent talked in a while i dont know him too well tho

**_octoprince:_ ** ah thats too bad

**_winwin:_ ** anyways i should probably go to sleep bc i have class in a couple hours, but do u still need to talk bc if u do its np

**_octoprince:_ ** oh yea i forgot it was like 4 am, u should go to bed. im feeling a lot better now that ive vented so thx for listening to my problems

**_winwin:_ ** anytime! I may not be the best at advice or stuff like that but im always free to listen hope you can get it all sorted out, just take it slow and things like this take a while to process <3

**_winwin:_ ** but anyways gn, stay safe 

**_octoprince:_ ** right back at u <3

 

Yuta turned his phone off, getting out of bed for the first time since coming home. He wasn’t tired, so he went over to his desk to play some Dota. After a couple hours of playing, he went over to the kitchen to make some of his favourite UFO ramen. He had bought a bunch last time he went to Japan, but he was running low so he saved the last few for when he really needed it. He qualified now as really needing it. 

 

\-------------------------------

 

Monday

 

Yuta was feeling good for the first time in days. He had finally accepted that his parents were getting a divorce and had spoken with his sister to see how she was taking it. She had reacted similarly to the news as Yuta had, making him feel a bit better knowing he wasn’t overreacting.

He also arranged to meet up with Sicheng for lunch tomorrow. He kind of played it off as wanting to check up on how far Sicheng had gotten on his portion of the project, even they were going out to lunch. He had sensed that Sicheng saw through it, but the latter had still accepted surprisingly. 

He had class today at 1, but he had to get up extra early because he had conditioning before his 7 am soccer practice. Normally Yuta dreaded conditioning, but he was actually kind of looking forward to it because their friday practice had been cancelled and Yuta was kind of getting antsy from the lack of exercise. 

He arrived at the field where practice was held, greeting his teammates and beginning to stretch. Soon enough Coach called the team to go over any announcements before they started conditioning. The boys gathered in a loose circle around Coach, “Good morning everyone, today we’ll be focusing on getting our endurance up for the upcoming championship, so to start off you will be doing shuttle runs down the field. But before you run off, I would like to introduce your new teammate!” Coach announced, gesturing to a boy that appeared from behind him.

There was some chatter between the people, surprised to have a new teammate this late in the season.

“This is Xiao Dejun, he just transferred to SMU from a school in China, so please be good to him! Now go do those shuttle runs, quickly now!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok so im rly tempted to start writing another fic bc an idea has been brewing in my mind, but i am promising to u guys rn that i will finish writing this first. but here me out, a chensung fic where theyre in a gang (dreamies) and chenle gets scouted and joins an idol group, and then jisung shortly gets scouted and joins a kinda rival group but since chenle left the gang theyre sworn enemies but they were previously lovers and had to break up and there a lotta jealousy and angst. how do yall feel abt that?


	13. Chapter 13

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> IMPORTANT TO STORY PLEASE READ: i would like to apologise on the fact that i inconsistently make notes and sometimes forget about plot points so then there are loose ends that need to be tied up. One I noticed is in chapter 7 that I alluded to Sicheng having some ulterior reason for not liking yuta, but then i forgot about it. i guess i’ll tell you what it was supposed to be, and i have decided to have it reappear in the main story. so my idea was to have yuta have stolen kun’s girl in the past, but yuta didn’t know she was taken at the time, and still doesn’t know it was kuns girl. as kuns best friend, sicheng could not easily let it go.

11:00 am

 

“So apparently, some guy in my art history class has enough of a crush on me to fucking tweet about it.” Sicheng said while Kun scrolled through the messages on Sicheng’s phone.

“Why did you say that you knew yourself?” Kun asked, eyes glued to Sicheng’s phone.

“I don’t know, I panicked okay?!” Sicheng replied defensively.

“That’s what they all say” Kun said barely audible.

Sicheng scoffed leaning back in his chair and crossing his arms. “So do you have any advice, all-knowing one?” he said, voice full of sarcasm.

“Well, tell me your plan first and then I’ll tell you what I think.”   
“Uh,” Sicheng started before being interrupted by a loud voice.

“Aiyah, Kun get your food I ain’t bringing it over to you, you’re already getting it on the house!” A disheveled guy yelled from the kitchen.

“Whatever, coming!” Kun yelled back getting out of his seat.

_ I guess Kun’s cousin doesn’t want to waste good service on non-paying customers. _

Kun returned with a plate of salt and pepper crab and a plate of eel noodles. 

Sicheng’s mouth instantly started salivating as soon as he locked eyes with that plate of crab. 

“So what’s your plan?” Kun inquired.

“Oh yeah, I don’t know.”

“God you’re such a lost cause,” Kun mumbled, “Okay, I’ll tell you what you should do. The guy who likes you is Yuta, and I think you should ask him out.” 

Kun took a slow gulp, “I know he’s done shit to me in the past, but I’ve gotten over it and I would rather you be happy than be ‘loyal’ to me. Also he’s like a solid 9.” 

“You say that like it’s that easy. Also how do you even know it’s Yuta? And even if it is, regardless of the pain he’s caused you, he’s too creepy, never.” Sicheng retorted.

“Whatever you say, but how do I know it’s Yuta? There’s only one Japanese guy who goes to our school.”

“Oh yeah… I can’t believe I didn’t think of that.”

“Yea I can’t believe you’re that dumb.”

“Well I’m still not gonna go out with him.”

“Here let me put it to you this way, I think it would do you some good to get some dick every once and awhile.” Kun replied reluctantly, “Speaking of…” he trailed off.

Sicheng turned around, crab leg still in his mouth, to see a loud group of boys in soccer uniforms enter the restaurant. He recognized one of them as Mark, another as Xuxi and one as the aforementioned Nakamoto Yuta. They sat down at a table in the corner of the restaurant, right in Sicheng’s line of sight. 

Due to Xuxi, the previously quiet restaurant had become quite noisy. Kun leaned in to whisper to Sicheng, “Hey isn’t that the new transfer student? The one right next to Yuta.”

“I don’t know,” he trailed off, directing his attention to said person. The boy had his arm slung over Yuta, chatting with Mark. Almost as if on instinct, the boy looked directly at Sicheng, locking eyes. The boy instantly scooted closer to Yuta protectively draping his arm loosely around Yuta’s waist. 

“I guess Yuta already has a mans,” Sicheng commented to Kun. 

“I’m just trying to help your love life, cause god knows it needs help.” Kun sighed, redirecting his attention back to the food. Sicheng followed suit, digging back into that delicious salt and pepper crab. 

Sicheng pulled out his phone to scroll through twitter for a bit before he was interrupted by the sense that there were two people watching him. He looked up to see Yuta and his new boy toy standing at their table. 

“Hi?” Sicheng greeted.

“Hello Sicheng, Kun. What a coincidence that we see you guys here!” Yuta said flashing a megawatt smile.

“Yeah you too.” Kun replied, looking at his phone absentmindedly.

“This is Xiaojun by the way, he’s a new member on the team.” Yuta said, gesturing to the boy who had linked his arm with Yuta’s.

“Nice to meet you guys.” Xiaojun said, smiling a little too warmly.

“I presume we’re still on for lunch tomorrow, Sicheng?” Yuta asked.

Kun shot him a confused but somewhat concerned look, but Sicheng replied with a short “Yeah.”

“Well I’ll see you guys around then! Nice to run into y’all” Yuta replied, starting to walk off, when Xiaojun held him back, making direct eye contact with Sicheng.

“I know he likes you, so you better back off. He’s mine!” Xiaojun said cheerily in Chinese, smiling brightly and waving goodbye, before bouncing off with an oblivious Yuta.

Sicheng just looked to Kun slowly, pressing his lips together eyebrow raised. 

“Well he’s an interesting character.”

“Sure is.” Kun replied, before picking up his chopsticks to pick up any remaining scraps of food off the plates. 

 

_________________________

 

“But as I was saying, after this y’all should totally come over to Johnny hyung and I’s house and we can set my old mattress on fire!” Xuxi said enthusiastically, sliding into the booth.

“Yeah that sounds fun! We should also invite Hyuck, Chenle and Jisung!” Mark replied bouncing in his seat.

“Ooh I can’t wait!” Bang Chan squealed.

“Now now kids, I doubt Johnny would let you do that. Too dangerous.” Yuta commented, crossing his arms and looking at the menu, “What do we want to eat?”

“Oooh oh! Isn’t that Sicheng sitting over there?” Mark said to Xuxi.

“Yuta hyung’s crush?” Xuxi announced loudly, snickering to Mark. 

Yuta just rolled his eyes. 

He flipped through the menu, studying the options. But then he felt Xiaojun scoot closer to him, snaking an arm around his waist. Yuta tried to scoot away, but Xiaojun firmly held him in place. Yuta was already worn out from having to deal with Xuxi and Mark, so he didn’t put up much of a fight, so he just tried to not feel Xiaojun’s hand resting on his hip. 

Eventually when the waiter came to take their order, Yuta ordered an obscene amount of food for their group, knowing Xuxi could really pack it in. 

The boys sat, talking amongst themselves before Yuta heard a drawn out “Hyung” from Mark.

“You should go talk to Sicheng,” Mark dragged out. 

“No.”

“If you don’t we’ll tell him about that one time with you sucked to-” Xuxi started

“Okay okay, I still don’t get why you’re so invested in my love life though.”

“I’ll come with you!” Xiaojun jumped up, flashing a bright smile.

“Okay?” Yuta replied, shooting a confused glance at Xuxi and Mark before walking towards Sicheng’s table.

As he walked Xiaojun looped his arm around Yuta’s arm, instantly making Yuta uncomfortable, but only allowed it to show on his face for a split-second. 

Yuta just stood in front of Sicheng and Kun’s table, unsure of how to greet them.

“Hi?” Sicheng asked

“Hello Sicheng, Kun. What a coincidence that we see you guys here!” Yuta started.

Kun mumbled something unintelligible, eyes glued to his phone.

_ Well then, I’m gonna just ignore that. Probably something snarky, I don’t know why but he’s always so fucking bitchy to me. _

“This is Xiaojun by the way, he’s a new member on the team.” Yuta said, pointing to said boy. Yuta made one attempt to yank his arm out of Xiaojun’s grip, but once again with no prevail. 

_ Okay, it was tolerable before, but I’m literally in front of SICHENG and now I look like I’m married to this practical stranger. My odds already weren’t in my favour. _

Yuta just put on his best smile and tried to look happy for Sicheng.

“Nice to meet you guys.” Xiaojun greeted.

“I presume we’re still on for lunch tomorrow, Sicheng?” Yuta asked, trying to ignore the person pressing up next to him.

“Yeah.”

“Well I’ll see you guys around then! Nice to run into y’all” Yuta replied and promptly tried skrrrrttt back to their table. But, again, Xiaojun held him back and leaned in to say something enthusiastically to Sicheng in Chinese. 

_ I really couldn’t care less what he said.  _

Finally, Yuta and Xiaojun went back to their table. Yuta squeezed his way in between Bang Chan and Mark, not wanting to have to sit next to Xiaojun’s thirsty ass again. 

_ At least I have tomorrow’s lunch to look forward to. _

“Okay are you guys ready to go? Yuta hyung can drive us to my house!” Xuxi said to the group.

“Um, I never agreed to that.” Yuta retorted, but Xuxi, Mark and Bang Chan were already halfway out the door.

Yuta placed a handful of bills on the table, hoping it was enough to cover the meal before joining the others outside.

After a very obnoxious car ride (mainly consisting of Mark and Xuxi blasting Lift Yourself and I Love It through Yuta’s aux cord and BADLY singing along) the group finally pulled up at Johnny and Xuxi’s house, no estate. Yuta honestly had no idea who was paying for this place, but in front of them sat a french-style three-story white house with neat landscaping, and everyone’s favourite feature, a pool out back. It might’ve been considered a decent sized house by American standards, but by Korean standards, it was a mansion, and a beautiful one at that.

Even though only two people technically lived here, both Ten and Jungwoo spent a lot of time at the house, boyfriend privileges. They entered the familiar foyer, and Xuxi bee-lined for the office, where Jungwoo was seated with his headphones on playing PubG. Ten and Johnny were nowhere to be found even though they were home, and Yuta couldn’t have a clue of what they even did all day.

“WHY THE FUCK DID YOU DROP US POCHINKI EVERYONE DROPS THERE WE’RE GONNA GET SNIPED IN THE FIRST TWO SECONDS YOU FUCKING LIL SHRIMP DICK ASS BITCH WHY DON’T YOU GO CRAWL BACK UP IN YOUR MOM’S CRUSTY ASS VAG WHERE YOU CAME FROM!” Jungwoo screamed into his mic. Xiaojun looked a bit taken back, but the rest of the group was used to Jungwoo’s duality.

Xuxi greeted Jungwoo with a warm back hug and a kiss on the cheek, 

“Hey baby.”

Jungwoo’s face softened into its usual resting smile at the sight of Xuxi, and snuggled into his hug.

Yuta decided to let the pair have a moment, so he moved towards the kitchen, and gestured for the other three to follow him. 

The boys gathered around the marble island in the kitchen, Xiao Jun opting to sit on one of the nearby stools.

“So, I’ll go get the flamethrower?” Mark asked. Bang Chan enthusiastically nodded.

“Wait wait wait, what are you guys burning again?” Yuta questioned concernedly.

“Xuxi’s old mattress!” Bang Chan yelled from halfway up the stairs. 

Yuta resolved that he was getting too old to be playing with fire (queue song), and decided to opt for lounging on the couch, which had a view of the backyard, so Yuta could watch the spectacle. He clicked on the TV and flipped through Netflix to find something to watch. He eventually picked Your Name, a movie he had seen quite a few times before, but enjoyed. 

About an hour in, Yuta caught sight of Mark, Xuxi, Bang Chan and the newly arrived Donghyuck, Chenle and Jisung catapulting a flaming mattress into the pool, creating a huge splash.

Yuta just shook his head and sighed, returning his attention back to the movie.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im so sry xiaojun u seem cool n shit i just had to make someone the clingy bitch


	14. Chapter 14

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> ok i was gonna stir up some drama w yangyang but then i realized i would be crucified by the germans

**_teewhytrack_ ** : i was born to flex

**_teewhytrack_ ** : diamonds on my neck

**_teewhytrack_ ** : i like boarding jets

**_teewhytrack_ ** : i like morning sex

**_teewhytrack_ ** : but nothing in this world

**_teewhytrack_ ** : that i like more than checks

**_teewhytrack_ ** **is typing**

**_octoprince_ ** : can u stop i’m trying to watch hentai and the notifications are covering up the girl’s tits

**_teewhytrack_ ** : i was waiting for someone to stop me

**_haechan_ ** : nickis better

**_teewhytrack_ ** : ok PULL UP BRO imma fight u on that one

**_snoops_ ** : ok guys lets not get into fights! Violence is never the answer <3

**_haechan_ ** : shut up cunt

**_crayolaMARKer_ ** : ill hold him back dw snoops

**_haechan_ ** : u too mark, u have ears. nicki? BARS. nicki doesnt even deserve to be compared to that hoe

**_winwin_ ** : um what are we talking about?

**_snoops_ ** : some hip hop shit

**_winwin_ ** : oh ya wtvr, rap is tbh bad alternative is where its at

**_snoops_ ** : yea i like country and edm i dont get rap

**_teewhytrack_ ** : bitch WHaT did u say?

**_haechan_ ** : yea SAY THAT AGAIN TO MY FACE

**_snoops_** **deleted a message**

**_snoops_ ** : can we all just talk abt something else

**_winwin_ ** : yea entertain me u peasants

**_haechan_ ** : did yall hear abt that chinese student who just transferred

**_octoprince_ ** : yea hes uh an intresting character

**_teewhytrack_ ** : ooh tea

**_teewhytrack_ ** : i havent heard anything abt him what was his name

**_crayolaMARKer_ ** : xiaojun

**_haechan_ ** : okay apparently he’s friends w ten

**_winwin_ ** : nothing good can come of that

**_haechan_ ** : ikr?

**_snoops_ ** : ten’s actually pretty chill

**_octoprince_ ** : ^^

**_teewhytrack_ ** : ok well yall must be popular then bc to everyone else ten is a manipulative whore

**_snoops_ ** : what makes u say that

**_teewhytrack_ ** : sis i dated him

**_snoops_ ** : oh

**_haechan_ ** : but as i was saying

**_haechan_ ** : i heard that johnny and ten had a threesome w xiaojun

**_winwin_ ** : BET?

**_crayolaMARKer_ ** : where did u even get that from

**_haechan_ ** : honey, ive got my connections

**_snoops_ ** : dang 

**_haechan_ ** : also teewhytrack ive figured out who u are

**_winwin_ ** : i didnt know it was a competition

**_teewhytrack_ ** : what?how?

**_crayolaMARKer_ ** : thats some fbi agent shit

**_snoops_ ** : theres no fbi in korea 

**_crayolaMARKer_ ** : oh right lol

**_teewhytrack_ ** : ok so who am i then

**_haechan_ ** : lee taeyong, senior, architecture major, founder of the d&d club and jung jaehyun’s crush

**_teewhytrack_ ** : WHAT THE FUCK

**_winwin_ ** : oh hey taeyong hyung

**_teewhytrack left the chat_ **

  
  


Sicheng just looked at his phone, in somewhat disbelief of the events that just happened. Not that he really cared about some exchange student’s sex life, but he was more impressed with Donghyuck’s investigative skills and knowledge of drama. 

_ I’m glad we’re chill and I’m not on his bad side, I don’t even know what dirt he could have on me.  _

“Hongdae, arriving at the Hongdae” an electronic voice announced over the bus’s intercom. 

Sicheng stepped off the bus and looking around for the cafe that he was supposed to meet Yuta in. After navigation through the confusing side streets, he found the cafe, Anthracite. It had quite a gloomy yet sleek appearance, which was quite contrasting to Sicheng’s current attire of a light grey polo shirt and light wash jeans, paired with some colourful Balenciagas. He entered the store quickly spotting Yuta sitting in the corner, wearing a purple Champion sweatshirt and Nike shorts, airpods in and lazily scrolling through his phone. Sicheng also spotted Yuta’s toned calf propped up on one of the chairs.

_ Dang he really is physically attractive. _

Sicheng approached the table, “Hey,” he greeted, low energy.

Yuta looked surprised when he noticed Sicheng’s presence, instantly sitting up and taking out his airpods,

“Oh hey! You actually came through!”

“Yeah, why wouldn’t I? I’m a man of my word.” Sicheng replied in a monotone voice.

Yuta chuckled, 

_ I don’t know what you’re laughing at but okay. _

“Well I guess we should order some drinks?” Yuta suggested, getting up.

Sicheng nodded, walking up to the counter, “I haven’t had any coffee yet”

“Yea I can tell,” Yuta quipped, earning a light slap on the shoulder from Sicheng.

“Ah, I’ll have an iced americano please,” Sicheng told the barista. 

“And I’ll just have a latte,” Yuta added. Sicheng reached to get out his wallet before he was stopped by Yuta, “Don’t bother, I got it.” 

Sicheng didn’t protest, but he was thoroughly confused. 

_ He knows I have lots of expendable money, is this a date? _

The pair returned back to their table, Sicheng emptying the contents of his pockets onto the table. 

“So how’ve you been since I saw you last?” Sicheng asked.

“Pretty good, I’ve just been rewatching Jojo.”

“Cool, I haven’t gotten around to watching it yet, I’m surprised you even got through the whole thing isn’t it like super long?”

“Yeah, I barely studied in high school so I had a lot of time on my hands, which I spent mainly playing sports, watching anime and going to my friend’s house to play video games.” Yuta reminisced.

“Sounds like the dream life”

“I know right? But now I have to be a responsible adult and take care of myself” Yuta chuckled.

“It’s definitely hard especially being in a foreign country on top of that, I didn’t know any Korean before moving here.”

“Oh me too, I definitely had it rough in the beginning, especially because there were no other Japanese students.”

“Oof I didn’t think about that, I’m grateful to have Kun and Renjun and Lele,” Sicheng replied. 

“Speaking of Kun, I wanted to talk to you about something,” Sicheng started, tone growing serious.

“What is it?” Yuta asked uneasily.

_ This is his test, how Yuta handles what I’m about to tell him will be my final judge of his character. _

Sicheng leaned back in his chair, crossing his arms, “A little while back, you slept with Kun’s girl, and because of that she left him. I’ll let you tell your side of the story.”

Yuta’s face shifted between many emotions before his face settled into an intense expression. He sat in thought for a couple of seconds, pressing his lips together.

“First of all, in my defense, at the time I slept with her I did not know she was cuffed. Second of all, when she told me she broke up with her boyfriend so she could be with me I did not know who the boyfriend was, and I did not know it was Kun until you told me just now. I did not intend any harm to their relationship or steal his girl, also for the record I did not initiate, she started flirting with me at the club and I just went along with it. I didn’t think it would go past a one night stand.” Yuta answered, slow and calculated.

“Tell him that I’m sincerely sorry and that it was a mistake. I hope there isn’t bad blood between us that I didn't know about.” He added. 

Sicheng looked him in the eyes looking for any hints of dishonesty, but found none. 

_ I guess if it really was a genuine mistake, and if Kun’s okay with it… I guess I’ll go for it. Wait, unless he’s already dating that Xiaojun dude. That’s the next order of business.  _

“Okay, I’ll accept that. I gotta have my best friend’s back, you know?” Sicheng stated with finality.

The barista arrived at their table, placing down their drinks and mumbling a half-assed “Enjoy” before returning to the counter. 

“So how’s your portion of the report been going?” Sicheng asked, not sure what else to talk about.

“Oh, for art history? I finished it a couple days ago,” Yuta replied. 

“Okay that’s good, but why didn’t you like tell me?”

“Why would I?”

“Um, it’s a collaborative project and its worth a lot of our grade,” Sicheng stated, “Well at least it’s done.”  _ So why am I here? I wanna go home already. _

There was a lull in the conversation and Sicheng didn’t feel like filling it. Luckily Yuta stepped up.

“So uh, you seeing anyone these days?” Yuta asked meekly. 

_ I thought he was supposed to be charismatic and confident. And he shouldn’t be asking ME, Xiaojun was all over him the other day. _

Sicheng rolled his eyes, “No.”

Yuta smiled, “Okay, would you be down to see a movie with me this friday?”

Sicheng was caught off guard at Yuta’s proposition, cocking his head to the side, “Like a date?”

Yuta looked away, not expecting Sicheng’s bluntness, “Yeah, I guess.”

“So you’re not dating Xiaojun?” 

Yuta looked disgusted, “oh GOD no. He keeps trying to pipe or whatever but there’s no way I would ever let him.”

Sicheng thought for a second, studying Yuta’s features, “I guess we can try, I’ll go with you this time, but if you want to actually date me you’re gonna have to put in effort. I’m not gonna give up the goods that easily.” 

Yuta leaned back, putting his hands up, “Okay challenge accepted. You might not like me that much now, but I’ll have you head over heels for me, just you wait. I’m Nakamoto Yuta after all.” He flashed his signature smile.

Sicheng returned a smile, amused by Yuta’s bravado. “Okay mister, don’t get too cocky now.” 

“It’s a date then!” 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> do u guys find it helpful for me to descibe the characters outfits or naw? I personally find it kind fun since i rly like fashion, and one of my fav fics as of late, the feeling of anticiaption by pxseas, describes their outfits a lot and i think it helps put u into the story


	15. Chapter 15

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> merry christmas and happy holidays everyone! I wanted to give prepare a lil present for you guys, a double update and some fluff bc im super grateful that anyone gives a shit about my word vomit. ik for a lot of ppl the holidays can be a stressful/tense time so hopefully my story can provide some distraction if u need it! Also this chapter will probably b only one of like 2 for this fic bc i dont rly fuck w fluffy shit but after this shit is gonna go down ;)

Friday

“So apparently Donghyuck and Mark are dating now” Jisung said, absentmindedly scrolling through his twitter feed.

“Not surprising.” Chenle replied, taking a hit of Jisung’s blunt, blowing the smoke in the other boy’s face, giggling mischievously. 

“You know I love you, but could you not?” Jisung replied, a hint of annoyance in his voice. 

Chenle hopped off the swing, walking over to Jisung who was on the adjacent one. Chenle smiled, staring into Jisung’s eyes before placing a light peck on the boy’s lips. 

“Aw you’re cute when you’re mad. Let’s get out of here, maybe your place?” Chenle propositioned.

“Sure baby.” Jisung took Chenle’s hand in his own, kissing it before the couple bounced off in the direction of the bus stop. 

 

\----------------------

 

Yuta looked at himself in the mirror, satisfied with his appearance. He didn’t wanna look super formal, but he also didn’t wanna look like he just rolled out of bed either. He wore a simple grey and white button down with some fitted pants. He ran his fingers through his hair, pushing it back and sliding on some basic black high tops. He grabbed his wallet and keys and headed out to the parking garage where he hopped in Jaehyun’s pimped out $70,000 Chevy Silverado. It took a lot of convincing to let Yuta drive Jaehyun’s truck, with Jae saying something along the lines of,

“Now you better take care of my baby girl well, I’m putting a lot of trust into you to not pull any funny business. Lucky for you I’m team YuCheng, and I want y’all to get together. If she comes back with even the smallest scratch I will never talk to you again.”

Yuta hesitantly, turned the ignition, taking a deep breath before backing out.  _ How does Jae even drive this? This garage is so tight and a truck of this size has no business here in Korea.  _

Luckily Yuta was able to make it out onto the main road, truck unscathed. He drove over to Sicheng’s place, only about 10 minutes away. He pulled up to the complex, turning on his blinkers and pulling his phone out to inform Sicheng of his arrival. 

 

**Private message between Nakamoto Yuta and sichengie <3**

_ 17:25 _

**_Nakamoto Yuta:_ ** im here

**_Sichengie <3: _ ** be down in a sec

 

True to his word, as soon as Yuta saw Sicheng’s reply he saw a tall blonde man walk out of the elevator. He was wearing a black and white sweater vest with a white button down underneath and light wash skinny jeans. 

_ Dang, he knows what he’s DOING. _

Yuta smiled at Sicheng as he sauntered up to the car, and getting in the passenger seat. 

“Well looks like someone’s compensating for something,” Sicheng greeted jokingly.

“In my defense, this is Jaehyun’s truck so if anyone has a small dick it’s him. You look really good as a blonde though! Not that you didn’t look good with black hair.” Yuta commented. 

“Thanks, so what are we seeing?” Sicheng inquired. 

“I was thinking Bohemian Rhapsody, but it’s not set in stone,” Yuta replied, eyes glued to the road. 

Sicheng hummed in acknowledgement, “ I heard it’s good, but I don’t really know what it’s about.” 

“It’s about the band Queen, more specifically the lead singer Freddie Mercury and his life. Jungwoo recommended it, he’s already seen it like 3 times.” 

“Oh okay, I didn’t know you were friends with Jungwoo.”

“I mean, we’re not really friends, I would say more like acquaintances that happen to spend a lot of time together.” 

“Okay, whatever,” Sicheng ended. 

“Anyways,” Yuta said changing the subject, “are you hungry?”

“Mmm, a little,” Sicheng replied hesitantly.

“How about we drop by Shake Shack real quick?”

“Sounds good, I haven’t been there in a hot minute.” At Sicheng’s confirmation, Yuta turned the wheel sharply to the left, the car jerking and catching Sicheng off guard, 

“Woah there, you know this is real life and not Forza?” he joked.

“Yea sorry, just remembered that I needed to turn” Yuta replied, focused on driving. 

Within a couple minutes the pair pulled into the Shake Shack parking lot, Yuta parking the truck. Yuta pushed open the car door, hit with a pleasant breeze. They walked up to the window to look at the menu, and while they were deciding he caught Sicheng giving him an up and down out of the corner of his eye. Yuta looked up at Sicheng, and Sicheng quickly looked away, his face getting a tinge redder. 

Yuta was amused by the other’s embarrassment and innate cuteness, but instead of dwelling on it he asked, “Do you know what you want?”

“Yea I think I’ll have a hot dog and a strawberry shake,”

“Ok then,” Yuta walked up to the counter and ordered. Sicheng handed Yuta a fistful of bills, but Yuta just shook his head, “This is a date remember? I got it.” Yuta smiled. 

Sicheng sighed, and retracted his hand.  Their order was called pretty quickly, and Yuta went to retrieve the food and came back to where Sicheng was leaning against the metal counter. 

Sicheng’s face lit up when he saw Yuta with a tray of food, grinning adorably. “Order up!” Yuta greeted with a smile. Sicheng deepthroated his hot dog, but then saw that Yuta was watching him and almost choked. 

“You didn’t get anything?” Sicheng inquired, gasping for air. 

“Naw, I just got some fries, I’m not super hungry” Yuta replied.

They ate in relative silence, making some small talk, before hopping in the whip and skrrting off to the movie theater. 

“So what made you want to come to school in Korea?” Sicheng asked.

“Well, I guess I wanted a fresh start, in Japan I never moved houses or schools so I was with the same people for 12 years. Also my family really wanted me to go to a good college, like wanting better for the next generation, and luckily I got a partial scholarship to go to Soo Man University for Soccer, so that’s why I’m here.” Yuta explained.

“Yeah I think it’s nice to try living somewhere else for 4 years, you already know you like the place where you’re living, so it’s valuable to try something new, you can always go back. I didn’t really have much of a choice, my parents are paying for everything so they pretty much got to pick where they wanted to send me. I don’t know why Korea, but I have a suspicion that they just don’t like Chenle and I and they’ve kind of given up keeping in contact with us. The only time they visited was when we took the tour, they haven’t actually come since I started going to school. They used to be involved in our lives when we were kids but I think they are kind of disappointed with how Chenle and I turned out and they kind of quietly disowned us. It kind of sucks during the holidays and what not because even if I go home to Wenzhou they’re always working and they don’t even meet up with me, but at least I have two parents so I’m grateful for that.”

Yuta was silent, the last sentence bringing up thoughts of his parents recent divorce. He was conflicted whether or not to bring it up, as he didn’t want to put a damper on the mood, but he resolved to tell Sicheng.

“That really sucks, I feel you, my parents recently separated, and my mom disowned my dad so my siblings aren’t really allowed to keep in contact with him if we want to have a relationship with my mom. Which is kinda sucky but I still call my dad every tuesday, and he seems to be a lot happier now so that’s good.” 

“Well I guess we both have troubled relationships with our parents but my old friend would always say, ‘You can’t choose whose vag you came out of, but you can choose your family.’ And I think I’ve definitely found a family here in Korea.” Sicheng responded. 

Yuta burst out laughing at Sicheng breaking the serious mood. 

“Ahhh that’s a good one! Besides the point, we’re here now.” Yuta said, turning the ignition off and pocketing his key. He walked around the car to open the door for Sicheng, the latter responding with a slightly surprised “Thank you,” and then wrapping his arm around Yuta’s, much to Yuta’s surprise. The closeness and resulting body heat was much welcomed by Yuta as the sun was setting and it was becoming chilly. He smiled to himself, glad that Sicheng was finally warming up to him, no pun intended. The pair walked up to the ticket counter, picking up two tickets for Bohemian Rhapsody. Yuta paid, much to Sicheng’s protest, but since Sicheng was insistent on paying for something (and Yuta couldn’t say no when Sicheng pouted and looked at him with puppy dog eyes) Yuta agreed to let Sicheng pay for popcorn. The butter pump got clogged though and then promptly exploded all over Yuta’s light coloured shirt. 

Sicheng’s mouth formed an O shape, “Oh my god, I’m SO sorry!”

“No it’s fine, I don’t care too much about this shirt anyways.” Yuta reassured. 

_ It did cost like $150 though… _

“We should probably wash the stain out before it sets though…” Yuta commented, walking to the bathroom with a still embarrassed Sicheng in tow. Once in the bathroom, Yuta quickly unbuttoned his shirt and took it off, running it under some warm water, not noticing Sicheng blatantly staring at Yuta’s flexing back muscles. Yuta looked back at Sicheng realizing and laughing at the other’s obviousness.

“You like what you see?” Yuta asked, amused.

Sicheng turned beet red and averted his eyes voice shifting to a somewhat confused tone, “I guess I never realized HOW jacked you were.”

“You say it like it’s a bad thing.”

“Well at least now I know what I’m getting into.” Sicheng said un-smoothly.

_ What are we even talking about. _

Yuta returned focus to washing his shirt allowing Sicheng to be flustered in peace. Once he was done he put his shirt back on and the pair exited the bathroom and headed to the designated theater. 

“God it’s so cold in here, I don’t know why.” Yuta said, rubbing his arms.

“Probably because your shirt is soaking wet dumbass.” Sicheng commented.

“And I thought I was the cold one. You’re lucky you’re cute.” Yuta replied playfully, earning a slap on the arm from a blushing Sicheng, “So, where do you wanna sit?” 

“In the middle I guess,” Sicheng replied. 

They sat down, the opening commercials were already playing. Luckily there weren’t many people, as the movie had already been in theaters for quite a while. Yuta sneaked his arm around Sicheng’s shoulders, waiting for any objection, but there was none. The movie started, the “20th Century Fox” clip playing. Some time went by, Yuta was munching on the popcorn and turned his head to examine the features of Sicheng’s side profile. Sicheng nudged him with his shoulder whispered, “I know I’m pretty but you’re staring mister.”

Yuta turned his attention back forward and tried to focus on the movie, but the darkness of the theater was making his eyelids feel super heavy. Deciding to surrender, he closed his eyes, drifting off into a deep sleep.

 

The lights started to brighten but Yuta didn’t want to get up, he was warm and comfy just where he was. He snuggled in closer to the black knit fabric in front of his face. His brain was willing him to go back to sleep, but he decided to open his eyes since he didn’t really remember where he was. He turned over, looking up to see Sicheng smiling at him. Yuta was a bit surprised, he must’ve slumped over and put his head in Sicheng’s lap as he was falling asleep. He sat up abruptly, slightly embarrassed. 

“You seemed like you needed sleep, so I didn’t want to wake you.” Sicheng admitted, still smiling.

“Oh thanks, what did you think of movie though?” Yuta asked.

“It was actually really good! I didn’t know much going into it, but it was really well done, one of the best movies I’ve seen in a while.”

“That’s good, well there’s no reason to stay here, let’s get out of this joint”

“Ew, never say that again.” Sicheng said, rising and walking out into the lobby, Yuta following close behind. They walked out to the parking lot and then hopped in the truck. Luckily his shirt was pretty dry by now so the cold didn’t affect him too much. 

“Well I think this was a pretty successful outing, hopefully you feel the same,” Yuta said, turning his attention to Sicheng.

The other boy grinned, god Yuta would never get tired of that smile.

“Yeah I had a really nice time, I was skeptical at first but we should definitely do it again!”

A wave of emotion came over Yuta and he realized that this was the time to make a move. He leaned in slowly but surely, hoping Sicheng wouldn’t pull away. Sicheng didn’t move away, but instead leaned in, closing the distance between the two and connecting their lips. Yuta brought his hand up to cup the side of Sicheng’s face, hand brushing his cute elf ear. 

A moment of bliss, Sicheng’s lips made him forget everything bad in the world. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> just wanted to put in that part at the beginning to show a lil how the dreamies are doing, also the writing is kinda bad since this was rushed but i rly wanted to update


	16. Chapter 16

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> *part two of my holiday double update* we in the home stretch guys! I’m aiming to wrap around chapter 20 so in this chapter i’ll be introducing the final plot point on yuta’s side, there’s still one more event on winwin’s side, which i’ll address in the next chapter. Also there’s non consensual kissing in this chap so just heads up it happens a little after yuta hears a knock on the door.

Saturday 12:15 am 

Yuta’s eyes fluttered open, the sun illuminated his white bedsheets, waking him up gently. He stretched with a groan, vertebrate cracking audibly. He glanced at the clock, deciding it was probably time to get up. Sliding off his bed, and opting to sit on the ground Yuta smiled to himself, remembering the events of the previous night. After their kiss Yuta drove Sicheng back to his apartment, and then returned home and passed out in his bed. The past week had been quite stressful academically, so Yuta had gotten almost no sleep and he had to make up for a week’s worth of sleep in two days. He grabbed his phone, unplugging it from the wall. He scrolled through his notifications, nothing out of the ordinary. He pocketed his phone and threw on a sweatshirt to look slightly more presentable, though his hair was sticking up all over the place. He walked out to the living room, seeing Jeno sprawled out on the couch playing Red Dead Redemption 2 on the PS4.

“Morning Jeno” Yuta greeted groggily, flopping down onto the couch.

“Morning.” Jeno replied in a monotone voice, eyes not moving from the screen. Yuta moved to look at the other boy’s eyes, which were completely bloodshot and had large bags under them. 

“Um, Jeno, how long have you been playing?” Yuta asked concernedly.

“I don’t know I bought it before work yesterday and I’ve been playing it ever since.” He replied, still focused on the game. 

“Oh lord, bro you know it’s like noon right? Have you slept or ate?”

“Jaehyun gave me a 5-hour energy. I’m not tired.” Jeno replied, almost robotic.

Yuta silently got up and clicked the PS4 off, turning to face Jeno with arms crossed, face painted with disappointment. He didn’t like to be the “mom friend” but this time it was necessary.

Jeno yelled in frustration, “HEY! Why did you do that! I didn’t even save!!”

“You need to go to eat and go to bed. Your video game habits are becoming harmful to your health, and if your own wellbeing isn’t enough to motivate you to tone it down, I do have Ms. Lee’s phone number and you and I both know she would be very disappointed to find out that her precious son was wasting his life away playing video games for more than 24 hours straight.” Yuta said firmly.

Jeno rolled his eyes and threw down his controller and grudged to the fridge and grabbed a container of leftover spaghetti. Slamming the fridge door with a thud, and making his way to his room, he threw his arms up, “You happy? I thought I was supposed to have one mom not two.” Jeno huffed, before disappearing into his room. 

“God what was all that yelling about?” Jaehyun asked, emerging from the bathroom wearing a bathrobe and some bunny slippers. 

“Jeno didn’t sleep or eat last night. Also, why did you give him 5-hour energy?” Yuta inquired.

Jaehyun shrugged, “He asked me how I run on such little sleep and I said 5-hour energy, and I asked if he wanted one. But more importantly, how’s my baby girl?”

“Your truck? I mean I didn’t crash it or get any scratches on it, it was really hard to park though, I don’t know how you do it.” Yuta said. 

“That’s good to hear, but how dare you fat shame her! Just because she’s a bit thiccer doesn’t mean you have the right to comment on it! She’s beautiful at any size.” He reprimanded. 

Now it was Yuta’s turn to roll his eyes,  _ I swear this boy was a southern cowboy in a past life or something, because no Korean except for Jaehyun talks about his truck like that. Frankly, it’s kinda weird. _

“Other than that, how was your date with Sicheng? Did anything happen?” Jaehyun questioned enthusiastically. 

“Weeelllll,” Yuta started, “we kissed.” 

Jaehyun squealed uncharacteristically, “Oh my god! I’m so happy for y’all! I’m assuming it was an enjoyable time then. Now if only I could get Taeyong to go on a date with me…” he said dejectedly. 

“Don’t worry man, he’ll come around eventually,” Yuta comforted, patting Jaehyun’s back. 

There was a knock on the door, disturbing their moment their moment of prayer for Jaehyun’s love life. “Don’t worry, I got it” Yuta said, moving towards the door.  _ Who could it be? We’re not expecting anyone and if it was a package they would just ring the doorbell…  _

Out of all the possibilities, the person who he saw when he opened the door was one he hadn’t thought of. 

“Xiaojun?” Yuta stated in surprise before registering and asking, “How do you know where I live?”

Xiaojun scratched the back of his head nervously, obviously not anticipating Yuta’s reaction. “Uh, Xuxi told me.”

Neither Yuta or Jaehyun found it very convincing but Yuta shifted to his next question, “Why are you here?”

Xiaojun stepped into the apartment, voice becoming more firm, “I wanted to ask you something.”

_ Don’t know why you couldn’t text me or wait til soccer practice tonight but okay.  _ Yuta sighed in annoyance, “You’re here now, what is it?”

“Um okay, could Jaehyun give us some privacy though?” Xiaojun asked, somewhat threatened by Yuta’s tone. 

“No, he’s my best friend and either he’s here for whatever you’re about to say or you leave.” Yuta said, folding his arms. 

Xiaojun exhaled defeatedly, “Okay then,” he took a couple steps towards Yuta, until they were about a foot apart. Yuta stood his ground, not going to succumb Xiaojun’s antics. 

“Willyougooutwithme?” Xiaojun said too fast for Yuta to understand, and before he could even process the string of words, Xiaojun wrapped his arms around Yuta’s neck and went in for the kill, his lips forcefully smashing into Yuta’s. Yuta was startled and tried to push Xiaojun away, but his grip was too strong. Xiaojun pushed his tongue against Yuta’s lips, attempting to gain entrance. But when Yuta didn’t budge the other forcefully pinched him in the side, causing Yuta to yelp out in pain and allowing Xiaojun to slip his tongue inside the Yuta’s mouth. He didn’t know what to do,  he didn’t want this and he couldn’t stop it. Luckily Jaehyun jumped up yelling, “HEY WHAT ARE YOU DOING!” and pulled Xiaojun off of Yuta with such force that the boy fell backwards onto the ground. Yuta was breathing heavily, lips red from being attacked by Xiaojun’s. “Why the fuck did you do that?” Yuta raised his voice. Fear flashed in Xiaojun’s eyes, then heartbreak. Jaehyun towered over the boy, ready to apprehend him at any second. Xiaojun started to say something, but Yuta cut him off. “You know what Xiaojun? I don’t care what you have to say, you can get the fuck out of my house! You’ve been nothing but clingy and frankly, creepy ever since we meet and I think I’ve been pretty obvious about not enjoying it. Yet, you kept trying me and now you’ve resorted to assaulting me? I’m honestly done with your bullshit and you can get the fuck out of my life!” 

Tears started rolling down Xiaojun’s face, but Yuta was too overcome with rage to feel sympathetic. He got on his feet, head down he snorted his snot before looking up, a look of resentment and insanity replaced his typical warm expression. He started to speak, voice wavering, 

“You will regret this Nakamoto Yuta.”

Then, the boy ran out of the apartment, leaving Yuta and Jaehyun to process his cryptic message and the events of the last minute or so. Neither of them knew what to say, so Jaehyun just stepped towards Yuta, embracing him in a warm hug. Jaehyun always gave the best hugs, Yuta instantly felt more comfortable and calm.  

“You good bud?” Jaehyun asked concernedly, rubbing circles on the smaller’s back. 

Yuta pulled away looking at Jaehyun, “Yeah, that was just… a lot.” 

“I guess there’s not much to do now though, he’s gone now.” Jaehyun said with a sigh. 

“True, what do you think he meant with the whole ‘you’ll regret this’ thing though?” Yuta worried. 

“I haven’t got a clue, hopefully it was just an empty threat to try and intimidate you. It’s not worth it to be paranoid, it would be playing his game.”

“What should I do then?”

“I think you should just go along with the rest of your life like normal, don’t worry about it. If he does actually do something, we’ll deal with it when the problem arises. But, I think you should just kinda take it easy today.” Jaehyun remarked. 

Yuta took a deep breath, “Okay then, I’ll be in my room if you need me.”

He trudged back to his room, flopping down onto his bed. He stared at the ceiling, still in disbelief of what just happened. He touched his fingers to his lips, the feeling of Xiaojun’s tongue roaming his mouth stuck in his head on repeat. He needed to distract himself, so he opened his laptop, and pulled up Season 1, Episode 1 of Cardcaptor Sakura. Though Shoujo anime wasn’t really his thing, he had many memories of his older sister making him stop playing Ocarina of Time on his GameCube so she could watch it on Saturday mornings. He usually didn’t have anything else to do, so he would watch Cardcaptor Sakura with his sister and wait for his turn on the TV. Nowadays, he would watch it when he needed a distraction from the pressures of adult life. It transported him back to a time where his biggest worry in life was beating the elite four, where he didn’t have to worry about finances, or reputation or any of that. He lost count of how many episodes he had watched, but soon enough his alarm (yes he finally set one) to get ready for soccer practice went off. He shut his laptop, changed into his uniform, filled up his water bottle and grabbed his bag. Then slipping some slides on, he grabbed his keys and locked the door behind him. He then exited the apartment complex and got on the bus to go to the practice fields. 

 

He stepped off the bus, jogging towards the designated field. He spotted Mark, and called out with a wave. “What’s good man,” Mark greeted with a high five-half hug combo. “You ready to get your ass kicked by Coach Kim?” Yuta asked jokingly. 

“Can’t wait,” Mark replied, voice full of sarcasm, “After last practice I could barely walk my thighs hurt so much.”

Yuta nodded empathetically, before nabbing a soccer ball that was rolling by and kicking it towards Mark. They practiced passing back and forth for a bit, making small talk until Coach blew the whistle signalling practice was starting. The team gathered around Coach, Yuta ending up next to Xuxi. He looked around, looking for a certain Chinese boy. Xiaojun was nowhere to be found, to Yuta’s relief, but at the same time Xiaojun never missed practice, which was concerning as he was probably doing something important, possibly following through with his previous threat. Yuta shuddered, almost as if shaking the anxiety out of his thoughts. 

“I guess Xiaojun isn’t here then, weird,” Xuxi said, thinking aloud. 

“Oh speaking of which, did you give Xiaojun my address Xuxi?” Yuta asked.

“Uhh, no? Why would I do that?” Xuxi responded, obviously confused by the question.

“Hmmm, okay nevermind then.”

“No what is it? Did something happen?” Xuxi questioned, more puzzled than before. 

“Naw, it’s fine.” Now Yuta was even more perplexed than before. Then, the sound of his text tone interrupted his thoughts. He pulled his phone out and out of all things that could’ve been on his screen, he could’ve never anticipated this in a million years. 

 

18:31

 

**_Mom:_ ** NAKAMOTO YUTA YOU BETTER HAVE A GODDAMN EXPLANATION FOR THIS

**_Mom:_ ** [image attached]

 

Yuta’s phone slid out of his hand as soon as he saw the picture, and he consequently fell to the ground in a heap.

It was a photo of Yuta and Sicheng sitting in a truck. More specifically, kissing in Jaehyun’s truck. 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> told yall that the fluffiness wasnt gonna last


	17. Chapter 17

Silence. The only thing he could see was black. Yuta was discombobulated, not remembering where he was or why he was here. Then a faint ringing passed by his ears. Yuta strained to decipher the sound and it became clearer. It sounded like a voice, a guy’s specifically. As the voice became louder and sharper, Yuta came to figure out whose it belonged to. Coach Kim was yelling right next to him, it was quite annoying and Yuta wanted to cover his ears. His eyes fluttered open in curiosity, to see Coach Kim, his teammates and a team of paramedics standing over him. 

“He’s alive!” someone yelled. 

Yuta sat up and cocked his head in confusion. Mark rushed over to him, a blubbering mess. “O-oh my god Yuta hy-hyung we thought you were g-gonna die! Don’t do that again hyung! I-I’m, I, just glad that you didn’t die.” 

Yuta pulled Mark into a tight hug, letting him blow his snot onto his shirt. He realized that he was on a stretcher, with various tubes strapped to him. 

“What happened?” Yuta asked, voice perfectly level. 

One of the paramedics spoke, “You passed out, you weren’t breathing and your heart rate was low. We don’t know why though, you seem perfectly healthy.”

“Oh okay, I feel perfectly fine, but I don’t remember anything.” Yuta admitted.

“Are you sure you’re okay?” Xuxi asked, visibly worried.

“Well,” another paramedic started, “his vitals are stabilized now, so he should be fine for the time being. He should definitely take it easy though, and pay a visit to the doctor as soon as possible to make sure it isn’t something more serious.”

“Okay then, Yuta you’re sure that you’re fine right?” Coach Kim asked, Yuta responding with a deep nod. “So, uh, I think this has been an emotional strain for everyone,” Coach Kim looked to Mark, who sniffled loudly into Yuta’s shoulder, “so let’s just end this practice early, go home and get some rest everybody. I’ll see all of you guys back here on Monday.”

“Thanks Coach,” the team sang in unison.

Yuta still didn’t know why he passed out, or for how long. He reached for his phone, but couldn’t find it in any of his pockets. 

“Um, has anyone seen my phone?” Yuta asked to the dispersed group of people. 

“Oh here you go,” Bang Chan said, handing it back to Yuta, “someone’s been texting and calling you non stop though.”

Perplexed, Yuta clicked his phone on to see a fuck load of missed calls from his mom. Suddenly, it all came rushing back to him. 

The kiss. The picture. His mom.

“OH MY GOD” Yuta yelped, instinctually dropping his phone onto the turf, earning some weird looks from his teammates. Luckily this time though, he didn’t faint. He picked up his phone, scrolling through the texts.

 

**_Mom:_ ** RESPOND NOW

**_Mom:_ ** I knew I shouldn’t have let you go to Korea

**_Mom:_ ** I’m so incredibly disappointed in you Nakamoto Yuta

**_Mom:_ ** You better have answers, RESPOND RIGHT NOW!

 

**_49 missed calls from “Mom”_ **

 

Yuta’s breath hitched, knowing what was to come, he started to listen to the copious amount of voicemails.

_ “Yuta please tell me this is photoshop” _

_ “You better start talking right now” _

_ “You know what? Stay silent. I can clearly tell what’s going on anyways.” _

_ “How could you do this to me?” _

_ “I knew your father was a bad influence, he made you one of them!” _

_ “I can’t believe you would succumb to such a sin, I raised you better than this.” “I can’t believe you would go and disrespect the Nakamoto name” _

_ “I should’ve never let you out of my sight, you’ve turned into such a disgusting faggot” _

_ “Your father is already a goddamn queer I can’t believe I was living under the same roof with two!” _

_ “If you need a parent you can go talk to your father, I will not associate with such putrid sinners. And that includes my son and daughter, I don’t want any more of your kind tainting my children.” _

_ “I will not be embarrassed like this again. Goodbye Yuta.” _

 

Yuta didn’t know what to think, his mind was swirling with too many thoughts to the point where they all blended together into an incoherent mess. 

He had just been disowned by his own mother.

His first instinct was to call and try to explain his way out of this, though he knew it would be useless. He called anyways, trying to think of what to say if she even picked up. The tone rang, and rang, and rang. Until there was a pause, Yuta held his breath waiting for a familiar voice to answer. But he was met with disappointment when the tone stopped altogether, and no one picked up the phone. He tried again, and one more time, and one more time, with no prevail. Yuta dialed his older sister in hopes that she would pick up. Once again, the tone rang and rang but after the pause, a voice actually answered back.

“Hello?” Yuta asked, thoroughly surprised.

A monotone, almost robotic voice replied, “We are not allowed to keep in contact with you anymore so stop trying. Goodbye Yuta.” His sister’s voice sounded as if she was being forced to say it without emotion or weakness, though the strain of her voice at the goodbye exposed the true nature behind her words.

The floodgates opened now, tears streaming down Yuta’s face uncontrollably. He let his arm fall limply to his side, and just stood there in disbelief. His mind racing 100 miles per minute, trying to process everything. Once he realized the fact that he would probably not have any blood relatives anymore, a wave of pure rage washed over him. 

Whoever sent that picture was going to get their face bashed in beyond recognition. 

That person ruined his life, ruined the little that he had. And they deserved the worst punishment.

Yuta was blinded by rage, but not enough to make any rash decisions. As much as he wants to murder that motherfucker right now, he was not about to waste the rest of his life away in prison or be subject to the electric chair or lethal injection. 

Unsure of his next move, he just decided to go home. He wasn’t paying attention to the outside world, he was just going through the motions. While contemplating who would have such a vendetta against him to do something like this, he had an epiphany. 

_ “You will regret this Nakamoto Yuta.” _

Xiaojun. The only person psycho enough to stalk him. The only person insane enough to ruin his life.

He wasn’t necessarily surprised at this point, the only thing he knew was that he had to make it VERY clear to Xiaojun that you could fuck with him, but you can’t fuck with his family. 

At this point he was so emotionally drained that he didn’t have any anger left in his being, he just wanted Xiaojun to get the fuck out of his life. 

He shot a text to Ten, requesting Xiaojun’s address, saying that it was important. Ten reluctantly sent it, and Yuta got off the bus, calling an Uber immediately.  _ Wouldn’t it be ironic if Xiaojun was my Uber driver again?  _ He thought, chuckling to himself. The Uber pulled up, and luckily it wasn’t Xiaojun.

_ It’s onsite for this bitch. _

Within a couple minutes, they arrived at Xiaojun’s complex. He found the apartment, rapping on the door aggressively.

“It’s open.” A voice called from inside. 

He pushed open the door to see Xiaojun sitting on a couch, with a smirk plastered across his face. God, Yuta wanted to just to wipe that dumb smug look right off his face. “It’s about time you showed up, I’ve been expecting you.”

“Why the fuck would you do this?” Yuta asked, feeling defeated already.

“I follow through.” Xiaojun replied in a lilted tone.

“I just want to know why.”

“I guess I’ll start from the beginning then,” Xiaojun said in a tone that made Yuta sick to his stomach, “I first saw you during your freshman year, after you broke up with Hansol. We were in the same group therapy, you were having such a hard time and I took pity on you. But I didn’t have enough courage to befriend you, so I just kinda kept tabs on you. Your condition started to improve and as I was observing you I began to fall for you. I quickly found your little habits very adorable. Though it hurt when you would sleep around with all those skanks, I still loved you. A few months ago I decided that it was time to make my appearance, and make you mine before it was too late. I was happier than ever before, being in such close quarters with my love. I even learned how to play soccer so I could get on the team with you. But after all this effort and love, you go off and go on dates with other guys? At first I was enraged, but you can’t stay mad at someone you love for long. So I decided to confront you, and make my move before you could be snatched away from me. But, you rejected me and shattered my heart. I was so depressed, the love of my life hated me. Eventually that sadness turned to anger, and I did what I had to do. I wanted you to feel that pain that I did, to get a taste of your own medicine.”

Yuta was speechless, everything was starting to make sense. 

“So you’ve known me for 3 years? And you’ve been stalking me all this time?” Yuta gawked, still in disbelief. 

“Yes, but I haven’t been stalking you. You make it sound so bad.” Xiaojun said, voice eerily stable and monotone.

“Because it is bad! You’ve lied to me, stalked me, and forcefully kissed me! How did you think I would react?”

Xiaojun began to say something, but Yuta cut him off. 

“You know what? I’m just so done with your shit. Get out of my life for REAL this time! I never want to see you again, and if I do, I will file for a restraining order.” Yuta declared, storming out of the apartment without waiting for a response.

Yuta’s life was a mess.

 

—————————————————

 

“So that’s all that happened in the past two days.” Yuta said, leaning back in his chair. 

“Wow, uh, that’s a lot. I’m really really sorry. It’s my fault, like if we hadn’t kissed you wouldn’t be in this situation in the first place.” Sicheng said tentatively. 

“Don’t be, and it’s not your fault. It’s Xiaojun’s fault if anybody and he’s taken care of. It just sucks, you know?” Yuta sighed. 

“Yeah, I feel you. I still feel super bad, like you’re truly a good person, you don’t deserve it. If you mom can’t accept you for who you are it’s her loss.” 

Yuta wanted to lift the solemn mood, but he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Luckily, Sicheng picked up the slack, “Wanna get out of here? We can get ice cream or something.”

They both stood up, Yuta placed his used napkin on the table. He retrieved a wad of cash from his pocket, to pay the bill for the tteokbokki, but Sicheng pushed Yuta’s hand away. “You always get the bill, let me pay today” he muttered. Yuta did not have enough energy to protest, so he just let Sicheng lead him out of the restaurant to the ice cream shop a couple storefronts down. 

The bell dinged on the way in and he was met with a very clean, aesthetic ice cream shop. The interior was sky blue and light brown, with minimal decorations and a couple neon signs. Sicheng made a good call, Yuta could definitely use some ice cream right now. There was a good mix of some more interesting flavours, like lavender or goguma, but there were also some average ones like chocolate and strawberry. After some silent deliberation, he decided on mint chocolate chip and informed the employee. Then Sicheng ordered his and paid for the both of the ice creams. Yuta waited for Sicheng to be done before he started eating, though because of this the ice cream started to melt and drip all over. 

“What did you get?” Yuta asked while simultaneously licking the sticky ice cream off his hands.

“Uhh, Strawberry. What about you?”

“Mint Chip. Can I try a tiny bite of yours?” 

Sicheng nodded and switched their cones. Yuta took a bite, instantly refreshed. “Mmm! That’s really good!” Yuta nodded enthusiastically, rejuvenated by the sweet dessert. 

“Yeah, I know right? I always get it whenever I come here.” Sicheng replied with a cute smile. 

“Oop, you have some on your face, lemme get it” Yuta said, reaching out and swiping the ice cream off of Sicheng’s cheek with a thumb, then putting his thumb in his mouth to eat the excess ice cream.

“That’s nasty” Sicheng responded in mock disgust. They sat down at some stools, ate their ice cream and talked about nothing in particular. Sicheng had his phone set out on the table, and all of a sudden the screen lit up with a notification, and coincidentally his own phone buzzed at the same time. He thought nothing of it, but out of curiosity he glanced at Sicheng’s phone. 

**_crayolaMARKer:_ ** how’s everybody doin

Yuta cocked his head, putting two and two together. 

“Uh, Sicheng? Are you in a chat with Mark?” he asked, straight to the point.

“What? Wait, how do you know that?” Sicheng said, equally as confused. Yuta pointed to the other’s phone, “Are you Winwin?”

“Yeaaah… still, how do you know my screen name? It’s only ‘winwin’ for that chat.”

“Um, Sicheng, I’m octoprince.” Yuta said reluctantly. Sicheng was silent at Yuta’s confession, probably trying to process this information.

“Whoa. Honestly that’s fucking crazy. Like I knew that all of us were from the same school, but for us to like actually know each other, and well? That’s some shit straight out of a fanfiction or something.” Sicheng expressed.

“Yea I know right? If I knew I was texting such a cute boy I wouldn't've picked such a dumb screen name,” Yuta chuckled, making Sicheng blush slightly. 

“I mean mine’s winwin so that’s not too much better.”

“Well you sure WON my heart Winwin” Yuta retorted, then instantly was hit with an overwhelming feeling of cringe.

“Ooh greasy” Sicheng cringed. 

“I think you secretly like Greasy Yuta, I can tell” Yuta replied with a devious smile. 

“No! I don’t!” Sicheng protested, visibly flustered. Yuta leaned over giving Sicheng a quick peck on the lips, causing Sicheng’s blush to redden. 

“Ha ha, see you do, you like Greasy Yuta.” he snickered, earning a slap on the arm by a pouty Sicheng. 

“Come on now, don’t be mad at me” Yuta said mockingly. 

“I’m not,” Sicheng responded, “but I would definitely not be mad if you kissed me again.”

“Your wish is my command” Yuta giggled, and pulled Sicheng into another kiss. 

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> needed to balance the sad and dramatic with a bit of fluff lol


	18. Chapter 18

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> im cringing at my own writing, its so fanfiction-y like ive def seen worse but this shit still cringey as hell imma throw up also i spent a lot of time trying to figure out how certain situations in the chapter were gonna go and I’m still not rly happy w it but I don’t have any other ideas so sry this is kinda shitty oh and happy Chinese New Year if you celebrate!

It had been two whole weeks since Sicheng had seen Yuta last, their schedules just never seemed to line up. Between the upcoming finals, and Sicheng’s new part time job at a local bakery, they hadn’t had any time to hang out in person. Granted they facetimed quite often, Sicheng missed Yuta dearly, and as they say, “Distance makes the heart grow fonder.” Luckily, his coworker Yangyang had picked up his normal saturday shift, so Sicheng had a decent chunk of free time. 

Right now he was sitting across from Mark, papers and textbooks engulfing the small cafe table. “Yo, do you remember what the uncinate process is?” Mark asked, not looking up from his notes.  “I think it has to do with birds or something” Sicheng admitted shrugging. An idea was beginning to develop in his mind, and the last thing he was concerned with was studying for bio. Since the rest of his schedule today was free, he decided to shoot a text to Yuta.

 

**_sicheng:_ ** u up?

**_yuta:_ ** bro its 1pm of course im up 

**_yuta:_ ** what kinda fuck boy ass text is that who r u and where’s my sichengie

**_sicheng:_ ** lol anyways are u free

**_yuta:_ ** ya

**_sicheng:_ ** wanna meet at the park around 2 or smth we can get food 

**_yuta:_ ** i cant say no to food or spending time w a cute boy so see u then <3

**_sicheng:_ ** oml what am i gonna do w u... see u soon tho <3

 

“Mark I need your help with something.” Sicheng stated, voice more serious than his normal tone. Mark’s head perked up, intrigued by the sudden request. “Can you translate something into Japanese for me?” Sicheng asked, hope lacing his voice. 

“Sure, my Japanese is a little rusty, but like how long is it? Can I see it?” Mark replied amicably as always. “Uh I haven’t written it yet, gimme a sec,” Sicheng admitted. Mark looked confused but didn’t say anything as Sicheng furiously scribbled something onto a scrap of lined paper. He handed it to Mark, looking away to not see his reaction. Mark wheezed loudly and started laughing. Sicheng just rolled his eyes, blushing against his will, “Can you just translate it? I’m gonna read it aloud by the way.” Mark exhaled loudly, regaining his breath, “Professor Sato sure never assigned us to translate anything like this, but I can try, lol I ain’t gonna try and hinder you on your quest for dick.”

“Oh my god, shut up Mark.” Sicheng said, he was too flustered to come up with a witty comeback. After 10 minutes or so, Mark handed the paper back, his messy characters and romaji smushed together under Sicheng’s only slightly neater korean. “I’m going to trust that you didn’t write something weird, but thanks” Sicheng said still somewhat defensive. “Anytime, go getem’ boy!” Mark called out as Sicheng gathered his things and made his way to the park. 

  
  


Sicheng sat down a nearby bench, and shuddered from the sudden gust of freezing cold wind. Rubbing his hands together, he reached into his backpack, fishing out the scrap of notebook paper. His eyes ran over the hangulized japanese sentences, testing out the pronunciation by subconsciously whispering the words to himself. He recognized the kanji, since they had the same meaning in Chinese, so he could confirm that Mark hadn’t just wrote some bullshit. He put the note into his jacket pocket and pulled out his phone to briefly scroll through his Instagram feed before a voice broke through the silence of the snow capped park. “Ah there you are!” Yuta said cheerily. “Oh hi Yuta, were you looking for me long?” Sicheng replied with slight concern. “No, it’s fine.” Yuta sat next to him. “How was class today?” Sicheng asked, too nervous to come up with a good topic of conversation. Luckily Yuta was didn’t really pick up on that, “It was good, but Professor Gwon just assigned us another reading, even though our finals are tomorrow, everyone’s just so stressed. What should we get to eat?” Sicheng mulled it over for a second or two, “I was thinking malatang, since it’s hella cold and I could definitely use some hot and spicy soup.” Yuta nodded enthusiastically, “Yeah soup sounds good, I’ve never had malatang though.” Sicheng shot him a look of disbelief, “Wait, really? It’s so good! We definitely have to get it then.  There’s a place a couple blocks away.”

“Ok cool, let’s go then, I’m starving!” Yuta got up, smiling giddily at the other. Sicheng’s window of opportunity was closing, this was his chance. He looked down at his feet, “I have something to tell you before we go though.” 

“Uh, what is it?” He could feel Yuta’s concerned eyes on him. Sicheng pulled out the note from his pocket, holding it in both gloved hands to prevent it from blowing away in the wind.

“I know this is super super cheesy and dumb but here we go.” Sicheng inhaled deeply,

“ゆたさん、最近に僕といっしょに、僕の真の感じを告げると思う。心の中まであなたは親切な人と、僕はあなたの同席はあげことが感謝しています。そして、私たちの関係についてを考えて、同じ感じを感じると思う。でも、僕は公式になりたい。ゆたさん、僕の彼をなりたいですか。” 

_ Yuta, we’ve been hanging out pretty often lately, and I think I should make my true feelings known. From the bottom of my heart, you are such a genuinely kind person and I truly enjoy your company. And I was thinking about our relationship and I think you feel the same way, but I want to make it official. Yuta, will you be my boyfriend? _

Sicheng exhaled loudly, the pronunciation was a bit of a struggle and he had been quite anxious, in hindsight, maybe reading an impromptu love letter aloud in a foreign language wasn’t Sicheng’s best idea. Sicheng started rambling when Yuta didn’t respond right away, “I know you like romantic stuff so-” 

But, his message must’ve translated well enough, because an award-winning smile spread across Yuta’s face and he stepped closer to Sicheng, “Of course I will baby, I just never would’ve thought you would be the one asking me out.” Sicheng proceeded to cup Yuta’s face in his hands, and their lips met. Yuta smiled into the kiss, kissing back. He pulled away, looking into Yuta’s eyes, getting lost in them. He didn’t realize how much time had passed until Yuta spoke,

“Hate to break it to you, but if we wait any longer I’m gonna have to resort to autocannibalism. Let’s go eat”

“Lol okay” Sicheng said, grabbing Yuta’s hand and starting to walk. 

“Did you just say ‘lol’ out loud?”

“Yes, do you have a problem with it?”

 

\------------------------------------

 

Sicheng dabbed his mouth with his napkin, before placing it on the table. “You’re right, that was really delicious, good call baby.” Yuta stated. “See? I’m always right.” Sicheng quipped, wearing a smug smile. Yuta rolled his eyes, and Sicheng felt his phone buzz rapidly in his pocket.

 

**_chenle-di:_ ** so um mom and dad are in korea

**_chenle-di:_ ** and theyre at the house rn

**_chenle-di:_ ** theyre asking where u are what do u want me to say

_ Oh shit…  _ Sicheng panicked, his parent’s have literally only been to Korea once, why would they decide to come now?

**_sicheng:_ ** im out with a friend, tell them i’ll come home in about an hour or so

**_chenle-di:_ ** is there any way you could come sooner? I rly dont wanna be alone with them 

**_sicheng:_ ** ok im omw

 

Sicheng sighed, and put his hands on his head. “What’s wrong?” Yuta asked, concerned over his boyfriend’s visible distress. “Did you drive here?” Sicheng responded, not feeling like answering the question. 

“Yeah,”

“Do you think you could drive me home, like now? Apparently, my parents are in Korea and just showed up to our apartment, unwarranted. The thing is though, they’ve only come to Korea once before, and that wasn’t even to visit us, so I have no idea why they decided to show up now, after we’ve been living here for two years.” 

“I guess, we should go then.” Yuta said pressing his lips together, standing up and grabbing his jacket off of his chair. He slung it over one shoulder, in a very modelesque fashion. Sicheng wanted to comment on it, but his mind was too cluttered.

 

Sicheng fiddled anxiously with the edge of his sweater sleeve, the sudden movement of the elevator wasn’t helping the growing heaviness in his stomach. Yuta had insisted to come with him, he rubbed the back of his hand with his thumb in efforts to comfort him. “Just don’t say anything to my parents or Chenle please, not that you know Chinese anyways.” Sicheng said, coming off more rude than he intended. 

“Don’t worry, I’m here for you.”

The elevator dinged and the pair stepped out. Sicheng took large strides towards his apartment, swiftly whipping his keys out and opening the door, Yuta close behind him. “Chenle? Ma? Ba?” he called out.

“Oh hello Sicheng.” Sicheng’s mother answered in that eerily calm tone of hers. Chenle met his eyes with a look of relief. Sicheng’s father nodded as an acknowledgment of his son’s presence. 

“And who are you?” Sicheng’s mother asked bluntly, looking Yuta up and down with distaste in her eyes. Yuta looked at Sicheng with panic and confusion. “Ma this is my friend Yuta, he was just with me before I came here,” Sicheng responded quickly, “What brings you guys to Korea?” 

“First of all, I told you to call me Wenling, not Ma,” Sicheng winced at his mother’s coldness, something broke inside him when she said that, but he tried not to let it show through, “Secondly, I’m sure you would be happy to hear that,” she paused, “you guys are getting a little sister!” She smiled with genuinely, Chenle and Sicheng locked eyes and simultaneously yelled “What?!” Chenle decided to speak this time, panicked and confused, “M-Wenling, Dong-gui, how? Please explain!” 

“I’m so glad you asked Chenle. We found a cute little Korean girl at an adoption agency. Her name is Yeri, and we came here to pick her up.”

“B-but, you already have us! And you guys are kind of getting too old to raise a kid” Sicheng sputtered in disbelief. “Looks like in Korea kids think they can talk to back to your parents.” Wenling turned to her husband and whispered loudly, “Honey, let’s make sure Yeri doesn’t turn out like these two .” Sicheng’s jaw was on the ground by then. He turned to Yuta to see his reaction, but was met with a very confused look instead. He spoke in rapid-fire Korean, explaining to Yuta everything that had just happened. “What?” Yuta exclaimed once he processed the information. 

“Well then, we are staying in the Park Hyatt, and we’ll be picking up Yeri tomorrow morning. If you want to meet her, I’ll have James swing by and pick you up in the company car. Otherwise, we’ll be going now.” Wenling stated with finality, grabbing her Burberry overcoat off of the couch. Sicheng looked at Chenle, coming to a consensus non verbally. “We would like to meet her, she will be our sister after all.” Sicheng said with little emotion. Dong-gui looked as if he wanted to say something, but held back. “Okay, James will pick you up at 2pm. And one last thing, you two will still have inheritance though Dong-gui and I will allow you to live this apartment for the time being. Goodbye.” Wenling strutted out of the apartment with Dong-gui trailing close behind, neither bothering to look back. Once he heard the door click shut, Chenle burst out “What does she mean we’ll still have inheritance? I thought that was the plan.” 

“Also that they’ll allow us to live here? It’s kinda a weird thing to say.” While Sicheng’s mind was racing through all the possibilities, Yuta whispered something in Korean.  _ Oh right.  _ Sicheng flopped down onto the couch beside Chenle, switching to Korean. “So Yuta, our mom said that we would still have inheritance of their properties and that we would be able to still live in this apartment. Like I have an idea of what that could mean but… I’m just being pessimistic.” 

Yuta rubbed his forearm, scrunching up his face. “I honestly have no idea, I guess y’all are just gonna have to see how it plays out.”

“Yeah, I’m just excited to meet Yeri tomorrow! I’m still kinda in shock that we’re getting a little sister but I won’t be at the bottom of the hierarchy anymore,” Chenle enthused. 

“Well, she’s younger than you, but I don’t know how much younger. She could be two years old for all we know.” Sicheng said, trying to ground the excitable boy.

“That would be cool, having a baby sister, but if she was near my age that would be awesome!”

“God, I sure hope not, you guys would probably gang up on me.” Sicheng sighed, and Chenle giggled with mischievous intent. 

“Not to interrupt but I think I’m gonna be going now, it’s starting to get dark out” Yuta interjected. 

“Ok, text me when you get home. Drive safe!” Sicheng replied. Yuta’s hand rested on the door handle, “Okay I will, tell me how it goes tomorrow and all. Bye bye sweaty!” Yuta cheesily blew a kiss on his way out the door. Sicheng scoffed and rolled his eyes in response. 

_ Who knows what tomorrow will have in store for us.  _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> lol kinda just wanted to flex/ practice my japanese but if it’s inaccurate it’s cannon compliant bc sicheng doesn’t know nihongese hehee oh and the sweaty instead of sweety is on purpose


	19. Thank you

I would like to start off with an apology, I’m sorry for my hiatus, which hasn’t even produced a satisfactory end to a story I’ve put so much time into. It’s disappointing for me as the writer, and you, as the reader. Honestly, this fic did NOT go in the direction I intended, and I think that that is clear if you compare the first chapter to the last. I really didn’t have a clear image or how I wanted the story arc to go, and that is something I regret quite a bit. I’ve had time to write, but I haven’t had a lot of motivation, and if I have been writing, it’s been working on another fic. One is only a few chapters, but is somewhat of a monologue, ‘to all the boys I’ve loved before’ format markhyuck and the other is a longer gang to idol au chensung (sorry I gotta get in that shameless plug). I’ve also just been disappointed in not only my story planning, but my writing itself. I feel like this has been a good learning experience, and I strive to only post work that I’m proud of in the future. Anyways, my ranting aside, I did write the intro to this chapter. After that, as you’ll see, I just typed out a summary of what the rest of the chapter and the final chapter would’ve been. Enjoy.

 

“He stood on the sidewalk, hands buried in his jacket trying to keep warm. He sniffled, the temperature making his nose run. “What time is it?” he asked voice cracking slightly. “2, he should be here any minute” Chenle replied, texting someone on his phone. Sicheng glanced over, seeing large blocks of blue and grey text. He couldn’t make out the name but wondered what was going on to be sending paragraphs. Just then, a sleek black Audi RS 7 pulls up to the curb, coming to a silent stop. A man dressed in a simple suit gets out of the driver’s seat and came around to greet them. “Mr. Sicheng, Mr. Chenle! Long time no see” the man said, embracing them both in a hug. “It’s nice to see you too, it’s been, what, four years?” The corners of Sicheng’s mouth turned upwards into a courteous smile. “Wow Chenle, you’ve grown to be so tall,” James commented, looking him up and down. Chenle nodded in a shy response, “Well we should get going, you know Miss and Mister Dong don’t like to be kept waiting.” James held open the car door, and the two slide into the backseat.”

After this, Chenle and Sicheng spend some time talking in the car, about life and such, get’s kinda deep. After that Sicheng looks out the window for the rest of the ride and contemplates his love life, realizes how good Yuta is to him and how thankful he is that Yuta is in his life. 

Chen-Cheng meet their parents and Yeri at their hotel, Yeri is your chiche bratty 4th grader; sweet and angelic around adults and parents but is a bitch to Chen-Cheng (I’m just going to refer to them as that for now) 

The whole family has lunch at the hotel’s restaurant (it’s boujee as fuck) and Chen-Cheng’s parents pretty much get rid of their allowance because they need money to give Yeri a good life, but abandon Chen-Cheng in the process, with little remorse. I also toyed with the idea of having Chenle and Sicheng get disowned for being gay, but I already did that with Yuta, so it would be pretty unoriginal.

And that’s pretty much where the chapter would’ve ended. 

 

Also, I originally was going to have a short 20th chapter, which would pretty much just be an epilogue, saying how Sicheng had to get another part-time job and shit, and how it was hard, but at least he was in it with Yuta, and everything would work out eventually, with or without parents.

 

Again, I sincerely apologize for the shitty ending, but I thought it would be better to let you guys know the ending, rather than leaving it unfinished for god knows how long. I hope you guys could take something out of this, whether enjoyment or a teachable moment. Note to any other novice writers, learn from my mistakes.

Thank you for your support of this train wreck of a fic, and please keep an eye out for my two upcoming fics! 

 


End file.
